September News

30 Oct

First birthday party plans with Bitchin Bajas, Sonica - Suzanne Ciani, Thomas Ankersmit, Introduction to Synthesis workshops, Arturia workshop, monthly clubs, Radio 3 segment

Hello! We can't believe we're approaching the end of our first year open to the public! Here are the headlines:

We've announced our first birthday party and we're beyond excited to be hosting Bitchin Bajas (Chicago, Drag City) at GLOSS, supported by Raivo Sloan, Gable Sable and Lupini (NTS radio). It's going to be a really special night!

Over the last month we've been collaborating with Counterflows on their Soundmap of the River Clyde project, which is still ongoing. Field recorders with hydrophone microphones are available to book through us until the end of November.

Sonica begins on the 24th Sept and we're excited to be working with them on workshops with pioneering composer Suzanne Ciani and Serge modular expert Thomas Ankersmit. GLOSS director Lewis Cook will also be running a workshop exploring the life and work of Suzanne Ciani and creating work based on her principles.

The next Intro to Synthesis is TOMORROW! This is an ideal session for people who are new to the library and who want to get hands on with some of our instruments in a friendly and supportive environment.

Dungeon Synth has been added to our roster of clubs, led by Mountainfog- this will be monthly. Synth Club continues monthly and Ableton Clubevery two weeks. We're planning some new club type sessions, watch this space :)

Next week we have Tom Lewis from Arturia joining us to host a workshop featuring the Polybrute.

GLOSS features as part of a Radio 3 broadcast about loops, alongside Robert Fripp and Cosey Fanni Tutti, which was a real honour. Lewis and Suzi spoke about loops within their own work, and some of the loops in the broadcast were made in the library.

More info below!

GLOSS TURNS 1!

Bitchin Bajas, Raivo Sloan, Gable Sable, Lupini and Waad AlBawardi.

This October, it'll be one year since we opened up our doors at Glasgow Library of Synthesized Sound for regular public access.

One year on from our sold-out launch party, we're putting on a party with some of our favourite artists to celebrate. Don't miss this one!

BITCHIN BAJAS
Chicago, USA – Drag City Records

We are beyond excited to welcome kosmische druids, Bitchin Bajas to Glasgow, returning for the first time in over a decade.

Across a prolific catalogue for Drag City, Bitchin Bajas have developed a distinctive approach to collective, immersive music-making, alongside collaborations with artists including Bonnie Prince Billy and Natural Information Society. Their tenth album, Inland See, arrived in 2025, followed by the Isle Peaks EP in 2026, continuing their exploration of the space between electronic and acoustic sound.

RAIVO SLOAN

Latvian musician, composer and DJ, Raivo Sloan creates music that betrays any genre-classification – intimate vocals seem to collage with moments of huge space unfolding into itself – melody collapsing into atonality – but through it all, a coherent sound RESONATING.

GABLE SABLE

Gable Sable is the music project of Glasgow based artist and musician, Anna Tewungwa. Combining voice, guitar, electronics, and layers of texture and reverb; familiar sounds are disconnected from familiar structures, choosing long-form songs that float between close and far away. The pop sensibilities of Astrid Sonne meets the temporal explorations of krautrock.

LUPINI
DJ

Lupini has slowly, quietly become one of North West England's most reliably interesting musical presences. A DJ, broadcaster, facilitator and enthusiastic digger-through-things, she spent five years running and programming Liverpool’s much-loved Melodic Distraction Radio before finding a wider audience through her NTS residency.

Visuals on the night will be courtesy of Waad AlBawardi whose Morphogenwork is an experimental visual project exploring the evolution of complexity in biological systems and the generative potential of nature.

***A reminder to GLOSS members to fill out our end of the year survey and thank you to those who already have! Your feedback is very helpful!***

Tickets here

Sonica - workshops with Suzanne Ciani, Thomas Ankersmit and more.

We're excited to be working with Sonica on some of their programming this year. There will be 3 workshops running at GLOSS:

Firstly, a workshop led by director Lewis Cook, centred around Suzanne Ciani's modular work and practice and discussing her principles. Secondly, a workshop led by Suzanne Ciani herself - this is very exciting, as it's the first time she'll have visited Scotland, and we're honoured to host a workshop while she's here performing at Sonica.

Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Suzanne Ciani's career shaped the sound of synthesis in the film and commercial work (including the original Coca-Cola "pop and pour"), before she became a five-time Grammy-nominated recording artist in her own right. She's spent decades touring the world with her Buchla 200e, but this will be her first ever visit to Scotland, making it a genuinely rare chance to see her perform and share her practice in person. This is a great interview with her in Women in Sound.

We are pleased to welcome Thomas Ankersmit, who will host a masterclass on the Serge modular system. Ankersmit is a Berlin-based composer and sound artist who has spent over twenty years working almost exclusively with the Serge analog modular synthesizer, live and in the studio. His work centres on physical, almost otherworldly qualities of sound, built through a deliberate, hands-on misuse of the instrument rather than conventional patching.

As always, members get 20% off the ticket price for any GLOSS events. We sent out an email with discount codes a couple of weeks ago, but get in touch if you're a member and can't find it!

All the Sonic/GLOSS tickets here

Workshops this week and next:

Introduction to Synthesis:

We have two Introduction to Synthesis dates in the diary - tomorrow night (Tues 15th) and the 13th October. These relaxed and friendly sessions offer a hands-on introduction to creating, sculpting and conjuring synthesized sound using hardware synths.

Great for new library members or folk looking to synthesise sounds for the first time.

Book here

Analog Sound Design class with Arturia

GLOSS is excited to welcome Thomas Lewis from Arturia where he will be delivering a masterclass on analogue sound design using the Arturia Polybrute amongst other analog synthesizers.
This workshop is part of Arturia's world tour which has seen similar workshops take place across the planet.

This workshop is FREE with limited places.

Book here

GLOSS on the radio

We were on Radio 3 this week making and talking about loops with Robert Fripp, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Hainbach, Christiaan Virant and others! You can listen back here :)