An immersive installation featuring hundreds of lights and speakers will transform Stroud’s Brunel Goods Shed this September, alongside a live performance from Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Silver Ley.
Squid Soup: Infinite Clouds with live performance: Silver Ley is scheduled for Friday 11 September 2026, from 6pm to 8pm, at the Brunel Goods Shed on Station Approach, Stroud, GL5 2HA. The event is being presented by Stroud Valleys Artspace in partnership with Hidden Notes Festival.
A walk-through composition of light and sound
The event centres on Infinite, an immersive spatial musical composition designed for visitors to move through. The installation uses hundreds of suspended bespoke orbs, each fitted with an ESP32 processor, LEDs and its own speaker.
The orbs are placed at different heights, allowing people to walk through the work and experience the composition from different positions. Each orb produces its own light and sound, while multiple speakers combine individual notes into clouds of chords that appear at changing points around the space.
The composition is arranged in four movements. Its sounds are generated in real time using rules that introduce randomness, meaning the work has structure while avoiding repetition. The documented version uses around 200 orbs, with the work exploring the relationship between immersion and atmosphere, and between the finite and the infinite.
Its three-section loop is described as ambient and lasts about five minutes in the documented version. Different sections draw on white noise, piano and strings, with the notes, timing, location, cloud size and rate of expansion controlled through randomised parameters.
Silver Ley to perform on the opening night
The opening night will feature special guest performer Silver Ley, formerly known as Bethany Ley. The artist is an independent multi-instrumentalist, composer and vocalist based in Bristol, and is known for combining classical instruments including harp and viola with electronic production and granular sound design.
The event listing describes the live performance as part of the opening night programme. Admission is offered on a pay-what-you-can basis, with suggested ticket prices of £10, £12 and £15.
From museum commission to Stroud event
Infinite Clouds developed from an earlier project that treated the Infinite installation as a musical instrument for live performance. Squidsoup worked with violinist Julz Nguyen and Nicole Olson Movement Chaos, a local dance group, to create an event in two parts: one section involving solo violin and another bringing the installation together with the dancers.
That earlier event was commissioned by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art to mark its permanent acquisition of Infinite. The installation has been displayed there since June 2025, with its run planned to continue until late August 2026. The performances used about 400 suspended speakers and explored real-time relationships between physical space, technology, music and the human body.
Squidsoup, the group behind the work, has been creating light, sound and technology-based artworks since 1997. Its work has appeared in galleries, museums, festivals and live events internationally, including Vivid Sydney, London’s Alexandra Palace, Burning Man, Canary Wharf and Salisbury and Gloucester Cathedrals. Its work Submergence has been exhibited more than 100 times across six continents.
For Stroud audiences, the September event offers a chance to experience the installation as both a walk-through artwork and a setting for live music. Tickets are listed through the Stroud Valleys Artspace event page.