Background

Oscillate provided an exceptional environment for live electronic music and played a pivotal role in supporting this emerging art form in the ’90s.

Acts then little known outside of the global techno underground of the time travelled from around the world to play. Music enthusiasts and party people came from across the UK to participate.

Oscillate highlighted Birmingham as a significant cultural hub during this period by providing “An oasis of experimentation … within a post industrial wasteland.”  Oli Warwick / Tim Rockins, Red Bull Music Academy 2017).

Sojourns – 2000 to the present day

At the end of the ’90s Oscillate moved away from transforming nightclub venues into unique Oscillate environments and started bringing our art form to more alternative spaces. This included an Oscillate on the 12th floor of Birmingham’s landmark cylindrical Rotunda building featuring a collaborative performance by Higher Intelligence Agency / Biosphere released as Birmingham Frequencies in 2000.

We formed AV collective Modulate, an offshoot of Oscillate, exploring new forms of audio visual, releasing a 5.1 DVD for home cinema and playing live internationally, our debut performance at The Center for Contemporary Arts in Torun, Poland. Modulate also brought Monolake, Vladislav Delay, Jan Jelinek, Fluxion and Francesco Lopez to perform in Birmingham as part of a series of Sonic Culture Salons and Modulate Listening Environments.

In addition, each summer for 8 years we took our well honed skills to woodland spaces at festivals in Devon and Northamptonshire, months of preparations leading to three nights of sonic explorations by HIA / Oscillate through varying arrays of multi-speaker configurations, with projections and installations by Modulate:

“In the darkness , deep in the woods, molecules of DMT wafting on the air and the physicality of bass vibrating through flora and fauna. Crystal clear frequencies from invisible speakers flown in the trees, unidentifiable revellers, unseeing and unseen, ears on high alert, attuned to the slightest of sounds. Our central hub a yurt, wood and canvas set upon the earth. Inside, HIA at the controls, out of sight, incognito, taking us on a twelve hour cosmic journey each night, alongside his companions and fellow travellers, the new / old Oscillate / Modulate crew.”

(This was before the introduction of commerce into the sacred grove, when the hideous goblin bar arrived, and a platform was built high up in the trees for DJs to be elevated above the crowd. But we were long gone by then, leaving no trace except for memories and resonant frequencies reverberating through time and space.)

In 2017 we returned to running Oscillates in Birmingham, in small community arts and music spaces and our current home, Pan-Pan .

We have also started our own small microcosmic festival the HIA Wildflower Camp (images here)

Bobby Bird continuous to perform internationally as Higher Intelligence Agency with Scylla providing visual support.

To find out about upcoming events join our mailing list by emaiing oscilate.club@gmail.com or follow us on instagram @oscillate.club