Amble Skuse

Amble is one of eight composers selected for a place on the 2025 RPS Composers programme. This will culminate in her writing a new piece, commissioned by the RPS.

On this page, Amble introduces herself in her own words, and shares links to her music, her website, and her social media platforms. We warmly invite programmers and commissioners to take a closer look at Amble's work, and please be in touch with us if you would like to connect with her.

About Amble

‘I am a composer and sound artist who uses disability theory, body sensor technology, spoken word interviews and electronics to create unique sound works. I am interested in the interface between the disabled body and the exterior world. I am currently working on my PhD, exploring disability studies, body sensors, technology and composition.

I combine all these practices to make works for instruments, computers, performance, installation and online. My work spans folk albums with Alasdair Roberts and David McGuinness, to writing for the City of London Sinfonia with live electronics. I also have a performance partnership with martial artist Boško Begović in which we make interdependent generative soundworlds controlled by his movement. I love to travel and have worked in China, Canada, Serbia, the Faroe Islands, Slovenia, France, and many more. In one of my durational performance pieces I took a train from Edinburgh to Singapore responding to creative challenges submitted by the public each day. I have also made various soundwalks using my wheelchair, and an online opera with a fully disabled cast. My most recent piece is a tribute to medical staff who died in armed service, which was presented at the Glasgow City Chambers Lamp Memorial.

My focus for this commission with the RPS is to develop my work with live instrumental ensembles with electronic processing controlled by Body Sensors and MiMU gloves. I plan to develop Max/MSP and Jitter patches alongside Ableton live in order to integrate body movements with the audio processing of the performers.’

Highlights

  • Amble’s Sonic Lamp (commissioned by Cryptic), a tribute to medical staff who died serving in the armed forces, was performed at Glasgow City Chambers as part of Sonica Festival in 2024.
  • Also in 2024, Amble’s piece Chapels with Splendid Glass Windows was chosen to represent Scotland at the International Society of Contemporary Music’s World Music Days.
  • In 2023, Amble wrote Divergent Sounds in collaboration with Kings College London. The piece, which was first performed by City of London Sinfonia at Queen Elizabeth Hall, uses interviews with neurodivergent people, electronics, body sensors and a 13-piece orchestral ensemble.
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody, a digital opera exploring the lives of disabled people in the UK, had its premiere at Scotland's Sound Festival in 2021 and gained a 5-star review from The i, who described it as ‘politically important and an artistic triumph’.
  • Amble’s 2018 album What News with folk musician Alasdair Roberts and early music specialist David McGuinness, was described in The Guardian as ‘so beautifully done…Skuse’s laptop textures offer slow-burning, elemental accompaniment throughout. So many intricate ideas here.’
  • Amble is an Arts and Humanities Research Council PhD Scholar, and has been a Creative Scotland International Creative Entrepreneurship Fellow, a BBC Performing Arts Fellow. She has also gained several large-scale grants from Creative Scotland to produce work.

Find out more

If you are interested in finding out more about Amble, hearing and and keeping up to date with her work, take a look at her website and social media below:

The RPS Composers programme could not happen without the support of RPS Members, PRS Foundation Talent Development Network supported by PPL, Delius Trust, Fidelio Charitable Trust, Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation, Idlewild Trust, John Ellerman Foundation, Presteigne Festival, Radcliffe Trust, Susan Bradshaw Composers' Fund, Vaughan Williams Foundation, and several anonymous donors.