WORK TO DATE
BACKGROUND
TRANS VOICES is part of the LONDON CONTEMPORARY VOICES family. It is the UK’s only professional choir for trans+ people.
We have linked to this web page because ILĀ has been working with Trans Voices on a relevant earlier project, to blend meditative soundscapes, choral tradition, emerging technology, and bold vocal experimentation to reclaim spaces where trans perspectives are rarely heard.
PROOF OF CONCEPT: UN/BOUND
An immersive sound installation shaped by quantum technology and artificial intelligence that asks what is sacrificed and what is reclaimed in the pursuit of liberation and self-determination.
ILA worked with Trans Voices and Moth (quantum computing) to develop & test the new AI technology.
The first collaborative piece using the technology was commissioned.
The work was presented as an interactive audio installation for The Barbican Centre's Feel The Sound immersive exhibition, May-Aug 2025.
MONOM, a Berlin-based studio specialising in spatial sound worked with the team to create the sound immersive audio environment.
The installation utilised holographic spatial audio technology, allowing voices to blend, shift, and resonate from various locations as visitors navigate the space.
The Financial Times called UN/BOUND a “standout” among immersive works in the exhibition, praising its ability to let visitors “melt into a greater harmony.”
Aesthetica Magazine described it as a collective choral experience centered on active listening.
FAD Magazine framed it as a commissioned exploration of belonging and resonance.
DEVELOPING THE WORK - Voices 360: A UK Choir Constellation
A MAJOR PROJECT FOR LCV’s 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY, INVOLVING LCV’S NEW UK-WIDE CHOIRS
The project brings together Ilā Kamalagharan and collaborators representing LCV’s UK-wide family of choirs to form a project choir. The resident core team will develop a composition using pre-recorded spatial audio drones (from the earlier project), plus live vocals, quantum tools, and test sound-reactive visuals by James GM. The wider team will then convene in Cardiff to shape the work as a choral piece and present it as a walk-through immersive installation.
For London Contemporary Voices' 15th anniversary year, this project brings together a UK-wide group of singers, artists and technologists for the first time to develop a new immersive choral work for a 360-degree environment. Led by Ilā Kamalagharan, the project draws on LCV's expanding family of choirs based in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, forming a project choir that reflects a diversity of voices, musical traditions and lived experiences from across the UK. Alongside their roles as singers, collaborators bring additional expertise from professional work in composition, facilitation, participatory arts, digital media, education, EDI and cultural production.
The project explores shared authorship, collective decision-making, deep listening and the fusing of live/digital experience, at the dawn of AI and quantum computing.
PROCESS
Structured around a phased, collaborative development process at CULTVR.
Phase 1: Core team - creation of composition built on a sound bed of pre-recorded vocal drones captured in spatial audio (from earlier work). Manipulated using Ilā's quantum music technology and AI tools and tested with live vocals.
James GM's sound-reactive visuals tested in the environment.
In-person residency workshop day with full team / choir - collectively develop the work as a choral piece.
Public presentation (1 day). Public invited to experience the installation which combines 360 sound-reactive visuals, live vocals, pre-recorded spatial audio and sound manipulation by Ilā. With Q&A.
THE PROJECT IS A DEVELOPMENT AS FOLLOWS:
1. NEW VOCAL INPUTS FROM WIDER RANGE OF VOICES
The technology will be applied to a larger diverse group of singers from LCV’s UK family of choirs. The project will include people from a range of musical backgrounds and approaches.
Singers come from different vocal traditions spanning classical, folk, jazz, pop, soul & more.
2. SOUND REACTIVE VISUALS BY JAMES GM
Sound reactive 360 visuals will be created and incorporated. The will respond to the audio inputs.
JAMES GM’s practice bridges electronic visuals and computational methods, further enriching the dialogue between sound, space and voice.
James is a specialist in Touch Designer, a real-time, node-based visual programming environment and platform for creating interactive multimedia projects. He regularly works with a wide range of artists and lectures at UAL.
3. INSTALLATION - A NEW GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION FOR LCV + PROMOTING WELSH VOICES
Working in Cardiff will expand our reach and provide a platform to further the work of Welsh Voices - an existing collective of singers which has been dormant in recent years, but which is being re-launched as part of the LCV UK-wide family during our 15th anniversary year.
Once developed and launched, a relationship between Welsh Voices and the venue can be established, and the approach can be promoted across LCV’s UK wide network of choirs and collaborators as legacy activities, drawing drawing further interest and collaborations to the venue.
