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 Monkey Noises - Awards For All project 2007-08
 We have just completed a fantastic project supported by Awards For All. This project has helped Earth Monkey artists work with internationally renowned artists, play concerts in the UK and bring international artists to Barrow and the North West.
The project also focused on educational work with young people, giving them a voice and helping them to develope their skills at Sonic Art, Music Re-mixing and Poetry. They have seen their work released by Earth Monkey within our normal release schedule alongside professional artists from around the world and has seen their work played on the radio, as part of internet podcasts and downloaded worldwide, they have also had a chance to have their work used as a sound installation in Barrow’s main arts centre.
It was a brilliant project and is part of Earth Monkey’s ongoing aim to present young peoples work professionally and not to marginalise it and present it away from our main arts focus. We prefer to treat the young people as artistic equals and for their work to be treated as such.
Within our Awards For All funding we ran the following projects:
60 Minutes - Music Concrete in Schools
Pupils from St Bernards School, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, UK worked with sound artist John Hall to produce an album of music concrete and electroacoustic compositions using field recordings from 24 hours in the life of the school. The group recorded and edited the work which was released as:
 emp044 - st bernards school - 60 minutes
Download or stream 60 Minutes
Reviews Of 60 Minutes
‘ fired up the St. Bernards school piece while I worked Friday. I thought it was great that the project focused on found sound and the musique concrete nature of creation. It's so important that we all learn all the modes to experience sound and music, as that is one of the things that gives the life that saves us.’ Gurdonark, Texas, USA
‘I liked this album, both conceptually and aurally. The sounds on the album are both soothing and disconcerting (a contradiction I know). I like the idea of having kids work on making a record for serious listening. There are so many options in terms of who could make a record and its too often just men and some women between 18 and 40 that get released. Mike Patton working with the mentally disabled is another example of breaking this pattern. My only complaint with the record is it gets a bit repetitious, but I suppose it's supposed to be that way. Coming from the US it's a little weird hearing the British accents of the children...kind of keeps things fresh.’ Internet Archive review
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 Summer Mix - Beats Rhymes & Lyrics
Working with Forum Twenty Eight poet Ann Wilson & sound artist Andrew Deakin helped young people produce a soundscape for an installation in the foyer of Forum Twenty Eight.
Ann Wilson said of the project... We had a fantastic week making songs and sounds of pirates, sea monsters and creatures that live in the sea. We played lots of games and played lots of different instruments and things that weren't instruments like stones, shells and whirly pipes. We used our voices to sing and make sounds as well and we had a lot of fun. Andrew recorded sounds and stories by individuals and the whole group.
 Everyone who took part contributed to the finished sound scape. It's a shame we couldn't include everything from the week but I'm sure you'll agree Andrew has made a fabulous piece that captures the essence of the sounds we created.
Click the play button to hear the seascape
Thank you to everyone that took part. We hope you continue to enjoy the Summer and we'll look forward to meeting you again soon.
Beats, Rhymes and Lyrics was part of Forum Twenty Eight’s Summer Mix Programme in collaboration with Earth Monkey’s Monkey Noises project.
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 The Resting Bench Remix Project - ‘Creating something new and something beautiful’
Music Remixing & Creative Writing workshops for 14-18 year olds
We delivered workshops in Barrow & Kendal Libraries for this part of the Monkey Noises project.
Using sounds from the original The Resting Bench album as a starting point the young people developed their skills in remixing music using professional software and were encouraged to express themselves in poetry. The finished tracks were then fed into the wider Resting Bench Remix Project, with tracks from the Barrow session being released on Volume 1 by Earth Monkey and tracks from the Kendal sessions being lined up for inclusion on Volume 3.
The young peoples tracks have also been featured alongside our other artists at our Resting Bench Myspace page
If you like the idea of re-mixing and want to know more about The Resting Bench Remix Project or hear other contributions from around the world, or even download the original samples and have a go at remixing it - click HERE
 Supported by Awards For All & Cumbria County Council
By the way did you know Libraries provide:
- CD’s
- DVD’s
- Social events
- Manga & graphic novels
- Books on every subject
- Great reads
- Magazines
- GCSE revision guides
- Homework support
- A place to study
Plus FREE internet use for under 19s - So join the library for FREE to enjoy all this! If you would like to find out more about what is available at your local library and the opening times please visit www.cumbria.gov.uk/libraries
Review of The Resting Bench Remix Project - Volume 1 on Headphonenaughts Nanolog
 ‘Simian Shaun has raised the bar with this fantastic collection of remix from a spoken word project [the Resting Bench] that I have been embarrassingly negligent in not checking out.
Basically the original Resting Bench was a collaboration between poet Ann Wilson and Clutter's Shaun Blezard for a mixed media exhibition which was held at The Nest in Barrow-in-Furness from May-July 2006. The resulting tracks were offered out for RE-MIXERS, BOOTLEGGERS, DUB VERSIONISTS, MASH UP MERCHANTS, GLITCHERS, JUNGLISTS, TURNTABLISTS, SONIC ARTISTS, SOUND TERRORISTS AND ANYTHING INBETWEEN!!!! to manipulate / remix... with the final output being this 30 track compilation.
What can I say about the diversity of this compilation other than WOW!!! This is EMP at their very best. Creating something new and something beautiful. Stand out tracks include the contributions from a couple of my favourite EMP artists - Cousin Silas and Adrian Carter... with other excellent tracks from Kristain Diod and Binary Girl.
The consistent use of Ann Wilson's poetry makes this project a cut above... her vocals add an ethereal, other-worldly nature to this first class collection. I would heartly recommend this compilation’
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Helping to Build Bridges - with Word Market & Age Concern
In November and December 2007 Earth Monkey worked with Word Market and Age Concern’s Building Bridges Project in St Bernard’s School, Barrow. The project meant that Age Concern volunteers and young people could engage in a creative process together and learn about each other by having fun writing poems.
We worked with Year 7 and 8 at St Bernard’s school and with a group of twelve volunteers from Age Concern. The participants created individual and group poems. Shaun Blezard recorded a selection of poems read by individuals and groups that created them. As Earth Monkey’s contribution to the process Ann led two days of workshops and gave two days in kind. Shaun recorded for a day and gave editing and producing time in kind.
We saw this as a successful partnership, without Earth Monkey we would have no record of the project, Word Market provided funding and admin support and Age Concern Building Bridges provided volunteers and support staff. The participants were proud of the poetry they had created and the Age Concern volunteers went on to support another poetry project at Greengate School.
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