London-based master looper, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Cosmo Sheldrake presents an improvised performance inspired by and often incorporating field recordings and natural soundscapes.

In this special performance for Nature Unwrapped, Cosmo will improvise using the disappearing soundworlds of endangered British birds and the changing sonic landscapes of coral reef fish. Cosmo will also explore polyphony by creating music for a multichannel soundsystem composed of the audience’s mobile phones, using a custom built software.

Sheldrake grew up surrounded by both music and a deep understanding and fascination with the natural world. His father, Rupert Sheldrake, is a biologist who comes from a long line of church organists. His mother, Jill Purce, whose own mother was a concert pianist, inspired a revival of group chant, teaches Mongolian overtone chanting and spent four years working with the avant-garde German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. This meant that from an early age Sheldrake was introduced to a whole world of unconventional music.

‘Sheldrake is a craftsman: a multi-instrumentalist composer, loop station maestro and vocalist extraordinaire; he’s an academic in the most complimentary sense.’ - The Skinny