Mariam Rezaei is a multi-award-winning Anglo-Iranian composer, performer, turntablist, and improviser who works at the intersection of experimental new music, free improvisation, and hip-hop. She is known for pioneering new techniques with turntables, such as free juggling and needle weaving, and her work has been described as "genuinely ground-breaking" and "high-velocity sonic surrealism". Rezaei is also the Artistic Director of TUSK Festival and holds a lectureship in Music Technology and Composition at Newcastle University.
During the summer of 2024 Mariam spent time meeting a diverse range of participants at the Acorn Centre, supported by Age Connected, many of whom were living with dementia. Mariam wanted to build relationships with participants to understand individual’s musical identities; what music meant to them, what they enjoyed listening to and why, and how has living in Great Yarmouth shaped these identities.
Alongside informal meetings Mariam spent time exploring Great Yarmouth making field recordings and digging for records in local charity shops. Mariam’s residency culminated in the presentation of a brand new work that incorporated field recordings, collected and found sounds, physically manipulated LPs (of those suggested by participants) and the use of five portable record players. This performance was given in March 2025 at the beautiful Ice House (thanks to Out There Arts) where Mariam gave a talk about this work, and before that a skratching workshop to a large group of young people with Play Produce Promote.
We were delighted that Mariam was supported by the Brainwave, an innovative local project devised by electronics improviser, David Ross and charity, Musical Keys. The Brainwave is an instrument that takes real-time EEG readings from the user which is then translated into control voltage, controlling an array of synthesiser and effects modules. The system allows the user to meaningfully contribute to group music-making regardless of their physical or intellectual ability.