Colectivo Modulate

Modulate collective: Bobby Bird, Scylla Magda, Mark Harris, Mark Bunegar & Joseph Potts.

Modulate first came together in 2001 through a shared interest in electronic music and abstract art. Two of the members previously ran an experimental live electronic music club called Oscillate throughout the 90's. During this period Bobby Bird also released a series of albums as Higher Intelligence Agency.

Over the years Modulate's output has had three main strands: curating and producing events/projects, developing their own audio-visual compositions and performances, and creating multi speaker sound installations. A concurrent theme has been an interest in modulating spaces, and in creating abstract symbolic realms of sound and audio-visual communication /expression.

In 2006 they released 'Modulate 5.1', an audio visual DVD for home cinema listening/viewing, and went on to perform live AV sets at a number of festivals and events. In 2007/2008 Modulate occupied a warehouse space in Birmingham, where they curated and produced a series of 'Sonic Culture Salons' hosting performances and talks by sound and visual artists including Francisco Lopez (SP), Skiff++(NL/US), Frank Bretschneider,(DL) and Solu (FN), as well as hosting a three month residency by New Zeeland artist Damian Frey. In 2009 Francisco Lopez returned to work with Modulate, directing the project Birmingham Sound Matter, which included a group of sound artists from Birmingham and culminated in a performance and CD release.

Sound installations, by Modulate member Bobby Bird, have included the 'Modulate Sound Cafe' a fourteen speaker sound installation in a yurt, recapturing the sonic memories of growing up in a cafe, 'Purpose Built', an exploration of sound as a by-product in the making of hand built Black Taxi Cabs in Coventry, and 'The Sonic Circle', a resonating frequency space set in a woodland glade. Modulate member Mark Harris released a CD of his own work, 'The Boy Observes the Ocean', on Hibernate records in 2010.