Philip Clemo is a UK-based artist working in composition, film, sound-design and live performance. He is also a TED Speaker.
Over 20 years he has released 6 albums, most recently Dream Maps, developing an individual musical language and working with a diverse group of international musicians.
In his film-making he captures imagery from the world around us from highly unusual perspectives, challenging familiarity and using ground-breaking technology in partnership with world-leading media companies such as Arri & Vision Research. He has filmed Icelandic geothermal fields from a helicopter, survivor trees in Hiroshima and Nagasaki with infrared and thermal-imaging cameras, and the human body with extreme close-up and motion-control technology. His work has been shown at international festivals, London’s V&A Museum & Eden Project in the UK, and on TED.
Through live performance, Clemo brings his music, sound-design and imagery together in dynamic and hypnotic shows.
To discuss a commission or collaboration, please get in touch
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MAGNETIC on YouTube
MAGNETIC on Vimeo
MAGNETIC has been selected or short-listed at multiple film festivals internationally.
You can purchase an authentic 4K resolution edition of Magnetic @ Sedition Art
In Magnetic, matter is pulled apart by the sheer power of sound, and the ebb and flow of an ever-changing musical soundscape. The film explores magnetism and the forces of attraction that are all around us. It also reflects Clemo’s investigation into how sound vibrates within us and alters us.
The film challenges familiarity through the use of extreme slow motion and micro abstraction and encourages us to let go of observing our visual world in analytical ways. Instead, it encourages the audience to embrace abstraction and ambiguity in ways that we might do with sound. The artist asks: “could we begin to see the world around us as we might listen to a musical composition?”
The track Magnetic is from Philip Clemo’s ‘Dream Maps’ album. It is composed by Philip Clemo & Arve Henriksen.
Imagery shot by Philip Clemo, Colin Gray & Paul Lilley.
Film directed and edited by Philip Clemo
With thanks to Dr. Jonathan Graham, Kenya Ebersole and Ametek Phantom slow-motion cameras in the making of this project.
FIRST BREATH on YouTube
FIRST BREATH on Vimeo
FIRST BREATH, produced by perfectmotion and edited by Adam Lavis, is a non-verbal trip from birth to death, illustrated through the diverse landscapes we inhabit, including our own bodies. The human form is captured as ambiguous landscapes and compared and contrasted with macro and micro images of the world all around us. The film was an official selection at Manchester Experimental Film festival, 2020
This film has been made in collaboration with members of the production teams who worked on David Attenborough’s ground-breaking natural history programmes, and through partnerships with 5 UK universities, including Oxford & Cambridge, and world-leading tech partners Vision Research and Arri.
First Breath is part of The Breath Project, a larger ongoing project, which has featured in Philip Clemo’s TED talks in the UK & US, and at the V&A & Eden Project. First Breath was originally released on Earth Day, 22nd April, 2021.
Made with the support of Arts Council, England, Ffilm Cymru Wales and Media EU.
FROM SILENCE INTO SONG
An multi-media collaboration with the charity Shout at Cancer, as featured on BBC Radio. You can view Emmy-nominated documentary film-maker Bill Brummel’s interview with the makers of the project Thomas Moors & Philip Clemo here
75 years on from the Hiroshima & Nagasaki atomic bombs, we’re celebrating life-affirming stories shaped by the powerful and dichotomous legacy of radiation, from the extraordinary trees that survived those bombs to a choir of cancer survivors, treated with radiotherapy, who lost their voices & then learnt how to sing.
You can learn more about the project here
And you can support it through JustGiving below…
UPCOMING SHOWS
Limited editions of Philip Clemo’s digital artworks are available to purchase as downloads at SEDITION ART
DREAM MAPS LIVE
From performances in the UK and Germany
Philip Clemo: guitar, keys, voice, soundscapes, theremin
Evi Vine: voice
Byron Wallen: trumpet
Emily Burridge: cello
Steven Hill: guitar
Martyn Barker: drums, percussion
PHILIP CLEMO ON TED
Music is fundamental to our lives, transporting us to extraordinary places. Imagine if we could learn to experience visual imagery with that same intensity.
UK-based artist, Philip Clemo, works across composition, film, sound-design and live performance. In this talk he delves into his multi-sensory Breath Project and explores the idea that our relationship with the world around us can be hugely enriched if we widen our visual perception.
LARK SHORT FILM
Lark is the third short film coming from the Dream Maps album. It explores confinement and escape as well as the dissolving of form. Thanks to Vision Research for its help in the making of this project.
DREAM MAPS ALBUM PREVIEW
A taster of the Dream Maps album. The official live launch was at Kings Place, London with an 8-piece band including Arve Henriksen. Video from that concert is on the Live Video Archive page.
Imagery in this preview is from The Breath Project www.breathproject.net, directed by Philip Clemo, produced by perfectmotion and Animal Monday.
Dream Maps was mixed by Philip Clemo, with Phill Brown
Recorded by Phill Brown and Philip Clemo
Produced by Philip Clemo