Auris features both local and international pioneers of contemporary sound art.

Internationally acclaimed sound artist Francisco López presents ABSOLUTE SONIC CREATURES, a sound piece fully immersed in darkness. Blindfolds and a multi-channel sound system transform listening into an intense sensory experience.

Nik Colk Void, a key figure in contemporary electronic sound, brings her solo practice to Manchester for the very first time, in a performance built around voice, beats, synthesis, and real-time sample manipulation; the set unfolds as a process of creation in the moment. Sounds are generated, transformed, and reassembled through live decision-making, with existing material stretched, fractured, or abandoned as the performance develops. Lee Patterson’s Terrain draws attention to the hidden and overlooked sounds of everyday materials, using self-built microphones and amplified objects to reveal their sonic potential. 

Artist and composer Ryoko Akama joins the programme with an intimate, durational object-based performance. Known for her minimalist approach to composition, Ryoko's piece invites us to consider the delicate and fleeting nature of sound. Manchester-based computer music, balloon & strobe aficionados, WEȽ∝KER, formed by Guillaume Dujat and Joe Beedles, close out the festival on Sunday evening with turbulent live sonic textures. 

Lola de la Mata, an artist whose work spans composition, performance and instrument design, presents her custom-built Tacet Friction Harp to Auris. Developed in the years following a severe bout of tinnitus and vertigo, the harp has become a way for de la Mata to treat her condition not as a limitation but as compositional material, translating the frequencies inside her own ear into something audiences can experience. Expanding the festival’s approach to sound, acclaimed Deaf performer Signkid, aka Kevin Walker, brings his distinctive performance style, integrating and adapting BSL and UK Sign Slang into live Hip-Hop, Rap, and Urban music, to Auris.

Acousmatic composer and sound artist Emma Margetson presents Diffuse Architectures: Sound, Space, and the IKO loudspeaker, exploring space as an active compositional force, proposing a more entangled relationship between sound, architecture and perception. Robin The Fog brings his quartet of Howlround reel-to-reel machines, presenting Cast Your Tape To The Wind, a beautifully messy hybrid of sound installation and performance, and an introduction to the wonderful world of magnetic tape. 

Alongside live performances, Auris presents a series of spatial sound listening experiences and installations, including T ½ Half Life, a collaborative project by Kamila Narysheva and Vicky Clarke. Their work examines post-nuclear landscapes through sound and field recordings from Semipalatinsk Polygon, the site of Soviet nuclear testing in Kazakhstan. Drawing sonic and historical connections between the country’s radioactive legacy and the UK’s participation in nuclear testing. The piece is supported by the British Council's Connections Through Culture programme. 

Wajid Yaseen’s Seven Sisters is a participatory sound installation incorporating vintage test-tone wide-range oscillators, adjusted and manipulated by the audience to create square- and sine-wave crossings. The installation is an act of listening effectively activated by the listener as they move around it.

Auris talks and workshops create a space for exchange, learning, and experimentation, exploring evolving sound art practices, emerging technologies, and different approaches to listening. Hannah Kemp-Welch launches The Listening Glossary, defining the language of sound and ways we listen. While Mark Wagner explores Cymatics and the connection between vibration, frequency and visual patterns. Rubbish Music duo Kate Carr and Iain Chambers examine the sonic possibilities of waste, sonic detritus and the art of listening to what is discarded. Sound artist and microphone builder Jez riley French explores extended technologies, durational listening and the subtle sounds that exist beyond the limits of everyday human attention. Academic researcher and composer Matt Barnard investigates the acoustic qualities of abandoned spaces through impulse responses. Meanwhile, Foley Nights, a participatory workshop from Modus Arts, invites audiences to become sound designers for the screen. Participants create live Foley in response to a selection of film clips, using an unexpected collection of everyday materials. 

Auris soundwalks invite us to experience the city audibly. Artist Maya Chowdhry’s workshop invites us to unearth hidden sounds and resonances, interrogating the landscape and the environment; its textures, modalities and stories through a decolonial lens. SODA PhD researcher Markus Hetheier, explores Manchester’s queer histories through the city's sonic landscape, while the Manchester Ear duo and NOVARS artists, Hayley Suviste and Ryan Woods, undertake a deep listening walk along Manchester's canals and waterways.

Auris is also thrilled to welcome Dorkbot Manchester, Paul Lavigne from KMR Audio, and Cristiana Palandri. Across the weekend, they will invite audiences to explore new ideas and interact with innovative sonic technologies. Presented by researchers and inventors from both academia and local grassroots DIY communities, audiences will get hands-on with live electronic instruments and interfaces, demonstrations, and a participatory soil radio workshop.

Across the weekend, Auris offers a series of deep-listening experiences through a curated line-up of recorded spatial audio performances by Brona Martin,  Text-Sound-Art, Miko Tchórzewski, Markus Decker, Bernard Kelly, Totaleee, Nye Parry, Cameron Taylor, Scald, Horse Lords, Arconic Sound, Jose Macabra, and Mick Harris