Anna Murray
She/Her
Anna Murray is a mixed-media composer and artist from Ireland (Mayo). She has a particular interest in experimental music, graphic scoring and text-based composition, the creation of sound spaces, and live improvised electronics. In 2019 she was awarded the Japanese Government MEXT Scholarship to attend Tokyo University of the Arts as a research student, where she studied Noh with Takeda Takashi 2019-2021.
Graphic scoring is a core part of Murray’s work, which often involves scores based on ink painting; she also creates miniature artwork-scores in her Postcard Pieces series. Murray is also a regular performer of live improvised electronics, using random processes to build longform sound performances from samples and field recordings under the title Rndr. She has released four albums of electronic music, and an album of field recordings with interventions, City Shadows, on Café OTO’s Takuroku label. She curates and hosts the experimental music concert series, Kontakt. As of August 2022, Kontakt is also a monthly radio show on CAMP radio, playing experimental, electronic and improvised music.
Recent works and releases include ‘Both Beaming and Beckoning’ for the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab 2023;: ‘Aioi’ for Quiet Music Ensemble, performed and recorded in July 2022; The moon sets and birds cry / 月は落ち、鳥が鳴いて, an album of improvisatory piano/electronics reflections inspired by Noh; ‘Crosstalk’, created for Crash Ensemble as part of their Reactions project in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 emergency; ‘my little Force explodes’ (commissioned by Ergodos and performed by Michelle O’Rourke and Lina Andonovska), based on the ‘envelope poems’ of Emily Dickinson and comprised of graphic scores written on envelopes to be opened by the performers; and music for three productions with Yokohama Theatre Group.