We’re pleased to announce the 2025 Graduate Prize, in partnership with the University of Brighton BA Digital Music & Sound Art course. This year the award has gone to Zac Clowes for his experimental compositional work ‘In Commune’.

The work elevates collaboration and interpretation through three acts, guided by visual scores that swap the rigidity of the traditional stave for expressive, abstract illustrations. Clowes arrived at this form of score making as a result of his combining of sonic and illustrative artforms.

As a musical piece, a process of response and exchange chains together a growing sequence of the graphic scores with interpretations from 14 musicians. Laid out in chronological order, the captured music was then shaped by Clowes into a final piece.

After gathering the performances, Clowes laid out the scores in chronological order, using them as a guide for shaping his final composition. The sounds heard in the piece are those of the performers, which he has reworked and recontextualised to move in accordance with the scores.