DUNCE - How To Sound A Bracket

DUNCE is the recording project of South London-based musician and artist Tom Armstrong. Emerging from the collaborative undercurrents of South London’s experimental music scene, DUNCE was formed as a space for Armstrong to explore improvisation, analogue processes and the expressive possibilities of the trumpet.

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His debut album, Life? Or Theatre?, wove trumpet through decaying cassette loops to form a kind of ambient chamber music. The 2024 follow-up, IT AM (Slow Dance Records), introduced a more rhythmic language, drawing from dub, field recordings and naïve jazz. Both releases share a tactile, hand-made quality—shaped by tape machines, outboard gear, and a commitment to spontaneity.

DUNCE’s new single How To Sound A Bracket was composed in response to a prompt by Joseph Bradley Hill for the first article of Late Works’ new literary limb ‘plates plates plates plates plates’. The question (how do you sound a bracket?) was one of many ‘starters’ posed for writers and musicians to respond to and create works exploring the bounds of language and transcription.

Made up of two separate live improvisations with regular collaborators Henry Nicholson (electric guitar and bass) and Elliott Batten (drums and sampling), the recordings were overlapped and stitched together, opening and closing, in order to simulate the linguistic use of brackets. 

This composition method took inspiration from Mark Hollis’s approach on the 1988 album Spirit of Eden, and stylistically shows the more free-jazz leaning side of DUNCE. Taking inspiration from Miles Davis’ In A Silent Way era, Spring Heel Jack, and avant-garde guitar players like Arto Lindsay and Fred Frith. 

The artwork is a hard ground etching from a copper plate by Molly Martin, longtime partner and collaborator. The process of etching involves preparing a metal ‘plate’ (often zinc or copper) with a wax ground which is then drawn into with a needle and placed into an acid bath to etch the image. This is then inked and printed on paper. The image shows a figure being enveloped by shimmering pools and swelling boulders, symbolising a moment of dreamy overwhelm. 

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ABOUT PLATES PLATES PLATES PLATES PLATES:

plates are discursive, experimental writings on sound, noise & voice ----- a speculative, conversational, accumulative, motley framework of studies on the arts & language ----- pocket-sized print editions of individual works, compiled into open-ended articles and albums ----- full of critical thoughts and prompts that are easy to understand and digest. 

plates has emerged from conversations surrounding how language swerves, gets translated, transcribed, diverted, in accidents and with purpose, to build the worlds we live in --- -- these anecdotes and botherings are pieced out and strung together, held, piled, shuffled, dispersed and read ----- to stimulate, provoke and encourage inquisitive thought. 

The article that DUNCE’s recording is in response to is titled ‘Alphabetical Processions’ - does understanding lyrics hinder or enhance the listening experience? ----- how do you transcribe abstract vocals? ----- does punctuation exist in music? ----- (& how do you sound a bracket?) ----- fortuitous mishearings, blurting utterances, the limits of transcription ----- the bounds of language ----- the tail end, the caboose of phrase ----- no soap, radio ----- featuring Cocteau Twins, Lady Mondegreen & The Loch Ness Monster.

ABOUT LATE WORKS:

Late Works is a sporadic series of live intermedia events and permutable collective of artists, musicians, writers, designers, filmmakers and dancers, with a weekly radio show on Resonance 104.4FM & Extra. Each manifestation of Late Works is governed by a set of pre-determined rules and instructions, aimed to encourage discourse, collaboration and exchange between the artists taking part.

The heavily process-based experimental shows are united by an ethos of indeterminate intermedia improvisation. All Late Works concepts are intended to be carried out infinitely, with a different set of practitioners taking part each time. 

So far Late Works’ founder Joseph Bradley Hill has worked with over 250 collaborators to bring the various events to fruition, including Mercury Prize & Academy Award Nominees and multiple New Contemporaries. Late Works has been featured in Electronic Sound, Loud & Quiet & Creative Boom, and played on BBC Radio 6, NTS & Resonance FM in various forms.

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j o l i