Capsule is a cultural alchemist: an innovative curator initiating, producing multi disciplinary work, this encompasses festivals, cultural events, and artist development through partnerships with a range of organisations. Capsule crafts extraordinary cultural projects for curious audiences; we seek to reveal the otherwise indescribable connections between art forms. Our aims are to introduce new audiences to our programme of activity, provide a platform for new work sonic/visual practice, expand the opportunities available for artists to develop and champion the unclassifiable. We have a unique ability to present the highest quality experimental work in a playful and imaginative way in different contexts, allowing us to reach out to diverse audiences. We create a context and critical mass for new work.
From hand crafted wooden structures designed by the award winning Studio Myerscough which acted as a billboard for the opening of the largest library in Europe to an immersive installation with remote control cars with styli attached, which raced across a track constructed from 1000’s of disused vinyl records nestled under a giant viaduct, to a stupendous procession of unexplored rhythms, unsung songs, unexplainable creatures and un-mythical beings set on a village green in Stoke on Trent.
Artistic Director/CEO: Lisa Meyer
Executive Producer: Kate Self
Programme Assistant: Rosie Tunley
Supersonic Festival Producer: Sean O’Keeffe
Finance Administrator: Neisa Reid
Home of Metal Project Manager: Nicola Shipley
Home of Metal Exhibition Manager: Jenine McGaughran
Home of Metal Co-ordinator: Beth Hogan
Capsule also work with a range of regular freelancers on different projects including…
Production: Urban Audio www.urban-audio.co.uk
Photography: Katja Ogrin www.katjaogrinphotography.com
Design and illustration: David Hand www.alongbirdalley.co.uk / Keith Dodds www.portfolio.keithdodds.com
Website: Jacob Masters www.gabba.net
‘Maverick’ The Guardian
‘connects, challenges and inspires’ The Skinny
‘The Birmingham-based Supersonic Festival, has a distinct identity in the UK’s increasingly crowded festival calendar – but it’s also commendably hard to sum that identity up in a few words.’
Frieze Magazine on Supersonic Festival
‘Contrast, without which we cannot perceive the world, is a phenomenon that defies homogenisation, where pleasure is relief from pain, and pain can be a prime for pleasure; where art is opposed to commerce, and the mundane is pushed back, often all too temporarily, by creativity. Capsule, the curators of the annual Supersonic Festival clearly understand this: from the coarse granularity of its urban, industrial environment so strongly set apart from the fallow fields of most other festivals, to the finer details of its handpicked programme of new music, installations, workshops, walks and talks, all deftly juxtaposed across a long weekend, the festival never fails to nurture new connections and rupture old ones.’
Musique Machine on Supersonic Festival
‘Its squalid bogs and towers inspired the landscape of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and, during the seventies, it became the concreted ‘Detroit of England’ which galvanised Justin Broadrick to pioneer industrial metal. There was also that sentient, superhero-car called Brum. But let’s not focus on the far-away or recent past – alongside these aforementioned institutions another name should be added to Birmingham’s ‘Star Walk’ that genuinely lines its crippled pavements. And that name is Capsule.’ The Quietus
‘Fiercely independent, outward looking and highly collaborative’
Mark Ball, director of Lift Festival
‘a willingness to escape the traditional’
Spencer Hickman, Rough Trade/Death Waltz Records
‘The work with Capsule has been incredibly rewarding. Home of Metal has been the most successful festival in the Black Country in recent history. Bringing some of the highest visitor numbers to the region for an event of this kind, attracted more press, media and braodcast coverage than any other event or festival and created more political and local authority director interest than any other events programme – all due to Capsule’s diligent and hard efforts. I would recommend Capsule to others as an organisation that do go that one step further and really make a difference’
Max Bailey, Black Country Arts Partnership
‘The personal approach as real enthusiastic members of the fanbase of the music they are curating, as well as being the curators themselves, provides a level of respect and integration which has continued to be a pleasure to encounter’
Stephen O’Malley, artist and musician
‘I’ve performed at Capsle organised events / Supersonic a number of times and every time has been an invaluable experience. I’ve also been invited to take part in large scale participatory projects with internationally renowned artists which have been some of the most inspiring and rewarding musical experiences I’ve had.’ Katharine Eira Brown, artist and musician
‘Capsule are responsible for initiating an array of consistently diverse and engaging projects, including projects in which I have played a role. Each occasion has been facilitated by an openness to communication which has assisted in the development of the project and has been marked by their wanton enthusiasm and determined professionalism which create an ideal environment for collaboration.’
Nicholas Bullen, artist and founding member of Napalm Death
‘I like to think of Capsule as the peristaltic pump of the independent music scene , a reliable heart pumping blood to the tips and branches of good music wherever that might be.’
Geoff Dolman, Static Caravan
‘a highly visual festival experience with some of the most eclectic, deconstructed musical minds on the planet.’
Clash Music on Supersonic Festival
Evolving, challenging music that demands interaction from the audience is Supersonic’s speciality.
Stool Pigeon on Supersonic Festival
‘the most consistently brilliant and forward-looking festival in the UK, if not the world’
Vice on Supersonic Festival
‘memorable to me and I’m sure to each and every attendee, was the richness of the events. The visual art was extraordinary, the Birmingham Museum show alone was something that a few of us thought of hiding out at for a few weeks, the movies, the MUSIC!!’
Professor Deena Weinstein on Home of Metal
