Auclair


Composer recipient 2024
Auclair (b. 1978) is a British-Rwandan music and sound artist, inspired by Black radical feminist theory, science fiction, and horror films. Her work explores rhythm, voice and electronica and takes an embodied approach to exploring ideas with sound. Alongside recordings, her practice takes form in live performances, installations, film scores and multidisciplinary projects.
“I feel incredibly fortunate and honoured to receive this support and encouragement at such a critical time in my life and in my career as an artist. It’s a huge thing to be able to have space to create freely and live, something I’ve worked so hard towards for a long time. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my nominator, the Award judges and the Foundation’s team.”
Recent collaborations and commissions include: a choral reimagining of the Egba Market protest songs in Onyeka Igwe’s ‘No Archive Can Restore This Chorus of (Diasporic) Shame’ for the Nigeria Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024; In Solidarity with Striking Workers, with London Sinfonietta, commissioned by Time of Music Festival and HCMF 2023; audio-visual piece RUZUNGUZUNGU, commissioned by ISSUE Project Room in New York for their ‘With Womens Work’ series, 2021, and Munganyinka is a Transformer for The Riot Ensemble (2020).
Her latest release, Giramata, came out on Amorphous Sounds in 2022, with additional production and mix from Kwes (Warp Records) and visuals by Dark Angel Services.
Examples of work
RUZUNGUZUNGU, 2021
Commissioned by ISSUE Project Room NYC as part of the With Womens Work series, inviting artists to interpret and respond to scores included in Womens Work, a magazine first edited and self-published in 1975 by Alison Knowles and Annea Lockwood. The piece responds to the “Stamping Circles” score by artist Carole Weber included in Womens Work (Volume #1, 1975) and plays with ideas around non-linear time, memory, ritual, grief, language/cadence, architecture and Rwandan folklore. Broadcast online. Music written/recorded/produced by Auclair. Film by Sophie Clements and Auclair. Complete work 4 minutes 39 seconds duration.
D.I.A.A.R.L. (Dreaming is an Act of Radical Love), 2022
From the Giramata EP. written/recorded/produced by Auclair. Final mix/additional production by Kwes. Mastering by Katie Tavini. Film by Dark Angel Services. Complete work 3 minutes 23 seconds duration.
EGBA MARKET WOMEN PROTEST SONGS (FROM NO ARCHIVE CAN RESTORE THIS CHORUS OF (DIASPORIC) SHAME BY ONYEKA IGWE), 2023
Song cycle of protest songs from the Egba Market Women’s Protest, composed from existing texts from the 1940s, and is part of film and sound installation by Onyeka Igwe, No archive can restore this chorus of (diasporic) shame, commissioned for the Nigeria Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024. Composed and arranged by Auclair. Performed by: Blue, Miryam Solomon, Bianca Stephens, Hannah Catherine Jones, Samra Manjaya, Nouria Bah, Buki Bayode, Jenny Moore, Mimi Koku, Ayumi Konno, Chinedu Igwe-Walker, Beatrice Loft Schulz, Munesu Mukumbe and Auclair. Recorded at The Room Studios, London, engineered by Kwake Bass. Mixed by Richy Carey and Onyeka Igwe. Complete work 8 minutes duration (extract 1 minutes 32 seconds).
MUNGANYINKA IS A TRANSFORMER, 2020
Written by Auclair collaboratively with Doris Auclair and Ausiàs Garrigós Morant, for prerecorded audio and bass clarinet. Co-commissioned by the Riot Ensemble and hcmf//in partnership with Zeitgeist Online Gallery. Recorded and mixed by Will Worsley. Film by Poppie Sköld. Complete work 5 minutes 54 seconds duration.
