Stephen Cole awarded grant to hold Indoor Toboggan Sessions series

Stephen Cole, the Liverpool producer and leader of the venerable weird-rock odyssey, a.P.A.t.T., has been successful with his application for Arts Council England’s funding stream National Lottery Project Grants.

The Merseyside producer, responsible for 2021 releases, not limited to Claire Welles, Unstoppable Sweeties Show, LONESAW, and Ali Horn, has been awarded £10,000 to hold the POSTMUSIC Indoor Toboggan Sessions, which are a series of music and film collaborations, most of which will take place at Cole‘s What Studio.

POSTMUSIC will play host to a series of collaborations with 12 artists from Liverpool to Los Angeles, which began earlier this month, running through until July 2022.

The collaborations will be broadcast and can be viewed at postmusic.info alongside archives from previous sessions.

The 12 artist participating in the POSTMUSIC series include: Parabhen Lad (The Jubilee Stompers), Craig Scott (Shatner’s Bassoon, Craig Scott’s Lobotomy), Lisa Fawcett (LONESAW, PaleRider), Timba Harris (Estradasphere, Secret Chiefs 3), Genevieve Rosa Baker (Zombina and the Skeletones), Nick Smith, Claire Welles, Dot Wav (a.P.A.t.T.), Anindya Kartika-Orr (Dyasono), Ben Duvall (Ex-Easter Island Head, Land Trance, Whistling Arrow), Emily Megan Lansley (Stealing Sheep, Vice Moth), and Sharron Fortnam (Led Bib, North Sea Radio Orchestra, Cardiacs).

LONESAW interview: “we just make the art we make”

Over the forthcoming year, Cole will also be visiting New York and working alongside (COVID permitting) seven-time Grammy nominated producer, Joel Hamilton, (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney et al).

Speaking of the collaboration, Joel Hamilton comments:

“I am looking forward to hosting Stephen at Studio G Brooklyn. The studio is built on  community, and the sharing of information. Stephen is clearly a like minded human and  having a talented producer / engineer / musician around the studio is always welcome.”

On the grant and the POSTMUSIC project, Cole adds:

“I’m amazed! After 20 years of my own art nonsense and around 10 years of working with a community of amazing artists, either producing, making films or recording their work, I  finally feel I am in a position to move forward with this kind of project and Arts Council England’s support has allowed me to do that.

“I’m very thankful to anyone who has supported me, a.P.A.t.T and indeed What Studio so far, it is all this support that has allowed this situation to flower and I’m keen to get working with the other artists to create new interesting pieces at a time when collaboration has been something on the back burner.”

Director of North, Arts Council England, Jennifer Cleary comments:

“We’re delighted to be supporting Stephen Cole for his upcoming project Postmusic, using film, music and mixed media to showcase the talents of a wide variety of artists. It is  also brilliant to see that the project will allow for artists to collaborate internationally and  showcase experimental and innovative work for local audiences. It is always a pleasure to  see the benefits and opportunities that our National Lottery Project Grants programme  brings to artists and the audiences they serve, and it is all the more rewarding to see such  activity taking place as we recover from the impact of the pandemic. I look forward to  seeing how Stephen’s work develops and the impact it will have on both his creative  practice and the talents of all the artists involved.”

Stay tuned on Sun 13 for further developments through out the year.