A new performance by Jamie Hamilton and the Phaedra Ensemble, exploring the territory between spoken language and musical sound, through the stammered voice.
A Mouth In Search Of A Voice is a new performance by composer Jamie Hamilton and Phaedra Ensemble, made with the voices of people who stammer. Over the past year Hamilton has worked with seventy stammerers across the UK, recording their speech as compositional material, which is then collaged, layered and woven into a score for live ensemble, electronics and video.
Live strings, bass clarinet, keyboard and electronics play through and around these recordings, accompanied by a two-screen video diptych by Matt Spendlove.
Hamilton’s electronics draw on physical modelling of the human vocal tract – recreating the voice at different stages in its evolution – and repurposes medical speech analysis software as a musical instrument.
Hamilton, who stammers, has long worked with phonemes and sub-syllabic sound, in a practice shaped by his own dysfluent speech.
Commissioned by Cement Fields and Phaedra Ensemble, supported by Arnolfini and STAMMA. It is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Jamie Hamilton is a composer, performer and multimedia artist. He co-directs Phaedra Ensemble and produced Meredith Monk and Phaedra’s new album Realms for Cantaloupe Music. His multimedia album Versionland (2024) was acclaimed as The Quietus Album of the Week. His work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, VRT, BBC Televison, and dublab. He has collaborated with artists including Elaine Mitchener, Lucy Railton, Mira Calix, Caroline Bergvall, Silje Aker Johnsen and Goldsmiths Prize-winning author Luke Williams. He lives and works in London.
Phaedra Ensemble is a chamber ensemble combining performance, bold programming and cross-disciplinary collaboration. In September 2026 Phaedra releases Realms, its debut album for Cantaloupe Music, created in close collaboration with Meredith Monk. Phaedra has performed with Caroline Shaw at the Barbican Centre, and collaborated with artists including Masayoshi Fujita, Laura Jurd, Leo Chadburn, Lotte Betts-Dean and Susheela Raman. Recent work includes a national tour celebrating Gavin Bryars at 80, featuring the Bryars himself as performer. Phaedra has appeared at venues including the Southbank Centre, Royal Opera House, Kings Place, Cheltenham Music Festival, Café OTO and La Seine Musicale, with multiple broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and internationally.