Artefact

07/09/2026

Artefact Presents... Sourdure + Sam Bland
📍Location Centrala Centrala Digbeth
🗓️ Sun 27th Sep 2026
🕰️ 6:00 PM - 10:30 PM

Fresh from our magical evening with Eric Chenaux, Artefact is ecstatic to present you with another twilight performance of Gallic-based musical alchemy!

An artist based in Thiers, Ernest Bergez, aka Sourdure, has been exploring the boundaries of distant sound worlds for the past ten years, combining a spirit of experimentation with a personal, hand-crafted approach to traditional musical objects. Hybrid and exploratory, Sourdure‘s music reveals itself in many facets: baroque inventions on traditional canvas, vociferous carnivalesque odes, stylistic borrowings from oriental music, sonic orfevrery marked by concrete music… Combined with the acoustic rusticity of the violin or the dotar (a Central Asian lute), electronics do their alchemical work, disturbing sound objects, altering perceptions and the course of time.

Whether exalted or bittersweet, the vocals borrow from the voices of classical Arabic, Turkish or Persian music. The Occitan language of Auvergne takes centre stage, deploying its metaphorical and polysemous mesh to express the common, the intimate and the sacred. The melody is born from the word, the poem gives birth to the song, in a form that could be distantly reminiscent of trobar, the art of the troubadours. A one-man orchestra, a single man playing from a universe of orchestras, Sourdure sings like the nose on your face.

Sourdure will be joined by Sam Bland, who surfs the shortwave radio waves for hazy esoterica and static-drenched enigmas, and accompanies this exquisite interference with jazz influenced piano. A real treat!

Poster beautifully designed by Ashley Swift

10/08/2026

Artefact Presents... Sourdure and Sam Bland
Sun 27th Sep 2026
6:00 PM - 10:30 PM

Fresh from our magical evening with Eric Chenaux, Artefact is ecstatic to present you with another twilight performance of Gallic-based musical alchemy!

An artist based in Thiers, Ernest Bergez, aka Sourdure, has been exploring the boundaries of distant sound worlds for the past ten years, combining a spirit of experimentation with a personal, hand-crafted approach to traditional musical objects. Hybrid and exploratory, Sourdure‘s music reveals itself in many facets: baroque inventions on traditional canvas, vociferous carnivalesque odes, stylistic borrowings from oriental music, sonic orfevrery marked by concrete music… Combined with the acoustic rusticity of the violin or the dotar (a Central Asian lute), electronics do their alchemical work, disturbing sound objects, altering perceptions and the course of time.

Whether exalted or bittersweet, the vocals borrow from the voices of classical Arabic, Turkish or Persian music. The Occitan language of Auvergne takes centre stage, deploying its metaphorical and polysemous mesh to express the common, the intimate and the sacred. The melody is born from the word, the poem gives birth to the song, in a form that could be distantly reminiscent of trobar, the art of the troubadours. A one-man orchestra, a single man playing from a universe of orchestras, Sourdure sings like the nose on your face.

Sourdure will be joined by Sam Bland, who surfs the shortwave radio waves for hazy esoterica and static-drenched enigmas, and accompanies this exquisite interference with jazz influenced piano. A real treat!

Location TBC (watch this space!)

Poster beautifully designed by Ashley Swift

25/06/2026

📯📯📯📯
Building a space that sounds better, together.

We are excited to share that .social will be working closely with Artefact to ensure the community hall in our new space will be professionally sound treated.

This will ensure that it’s a great sounding space, so we can continue to champion forward thinking artists in a venue that helps them sound their best.

We’re also running acoustic tests so that the space is perfectly tuned, and we won’t disturb our immediate neighbours.

Community relations are key to everything Artefact does, and this space will perfectly reflect this. The hall will be an acoustically excellent space and cultural hub, open to use for Artefact events, local artists and residents.

We would not have been able to realise this project without the help of Birmingham City Council, and the grant provided as part of the Music Infrastructure Fund

02/04/2026

🎸🚨LIVE MUSIC ALERT!🚨🎷

Artefact Presents... Eric Chenaux and Karolina Wegryzyn
28th April, 7pm


Eric Chenaux is one of the great contemporary guitarists and experimental songsmiths. His work balances masterful improvisation and classic composition, at once giving nods to avant-garde noiseniks, folk songwriters and the great jazz singers. A former Wire Magazine cover star and described by The Guardian as having “one of the all-time great singing voices in popular music”, Chenaux is a bonafide legend making a much anticipated visit to Birmingham on the back of 2024’s extraordinary ‘Delights Of My Life’.

“Where Chenaux really differs from any of them is in his lysergic tonal explorations, behind his honey-dipped vocals and baffling assortment of bent guitar notes, aquatic and forever morphing” The Quietus

“A singer and songwriter possessed of angelic sweetness and clarity accompanying himself with largely improvised, visceral guitar textures that seem intent on undermining and obscuring his own songs. It’s the need to communicate tussling with the urge to obfuscate; lucidity versus opacity; form against chaos.” The Wire

Karolina Wegrzyn is an award-winning Polish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist from South-Eastern Poland, now based in West Midlands. She plays accordion, hammered dulcimer and frame drums. Raised in a family of traditional singers and dancers, she inherited many songs from her grandmother and uses archaic “scream singing” rooted in Eastern European village traditions. She received a Polish Ministry of Culture award in 2011 and placed 3rd at the 2021 Szczecin Traditional Musician’s Tournament. She performs at many UK events with her band, blending powerful upbeat Balkan folk with emotional North-Carpathian rawness to create a sense of shared cultural heritage.

This concert is taking place at and we’d like to thank them for hosting Artefact whilst we still await moving into our new home! 🙏

Venue information below ⬇️ :

Centrala
Art Gallery
And Creative Space

Address:

Unit 4 Minerva Works
158 Fazeley Street
Birmingham
B5 5RT

Poster designed by

19/03/2026

THANK YOU

We’re overwhelmed by the support for Artefact.
Thanks to your contributions, Artefact can:
Provide match funding for Arts Council bids
2. Cover essential BORING operational costs
3. Access vital FUN technical equipment for live music, shows, and creative events

Your support keeps the dreams alive and our programs thriving!

Slides designed by

09/03/2026

🎊🎊We've now reached the final 24 hours mark!🎉🎉

Thank to all the residents of Stirchley and South Birmingham who have supported our fundraiser so far. We've been really motivated by all your excitement and memories of the old Artefact in Stirchley, but don't worry when we reopen we'll be the same old place (minus the leaking roof).

It's been almost 12 years since Artefact opened it's doors back in 2015 offering a community arts space for workshops, music, poetry and more. Now, set to move into our new home in the Stirchley Cooperative Development, we can upgrade our arts programme to deliver something really fun and exciting for Stirchley and beyond.

For anyone who hasn't seen our fundraiser, please do check out the link below and watch our short film!

We've missed you all so much and can't wait to welcome you all back into the hallowed halls of Artefact for more creativity, music and socialising!

The Artefact team

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/artefact-returns #

Artefact Returns: Help us build a new co-op home for art, music & community in Stirchley’s landmark development.

27/02/2026

📯📯📯APPRECIATION POST THREE📯📯📯📯📯

Eleven days left!

Artefact would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has donated to our relaunch fundraiser so far!

As we are edging ever closer to the long-overdue completion of our new home in the our excitement grows for welcoming you all back- and reading your messages of support for our return has been a big part of that building excitement.

A big special thanks to
blondel.96










We have so many plans for projects, working locally and with international artists and bands. Please do check out our fundraiser (link in bio!) and share far and wide with any friends and organisations you think would be interested in our work.

All our thanks,
The Artefact Team

14/02/2026

📯📯📯📯APPRECIATION POST TWO📯📯📯📯📯

Twenty-four days left!

Artefact would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has donated to our relaunch fundraiser so far!

As we are edging ever closer to the long-overdue completion of our new home in the our excitement grows for welcoming you all back- and reading your messages of support for our return has been a big part of that building excitement.

First of all thanks to




is.not.a.banana





We have so many plans for projects, working locally and with international artists and bands. Please do check out our fundraiser (link in bio!) and share far and wide with any friends and organisations you think would be interested in our work.

All our thanks,
The Artefact Team

07/02/2026

📯📯📯📯APPRECIATION POST ONE📯📯📯📯📯

Thirty-three days left!

Artefact would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has donated to our relaunch fundraiser so far!

As we are edging ever closer to the long-overdue completion of our new home in the our excitement grows for welcoming you all back- and reading your messages of support for our return has been a big part of that building excitement.

We have so many plans for projects, working locally and with international artists and bands. Please do share our Fundraiser far and wide with any friends and organisations you think would be interested in our work.

First of all thanks tonotfromsteps


mccc co fursman


All our thanks,
The Artefact Team