The Piano Makers @ St. Peter’s Church, Nottingham as part of World Event Young Artists 2012

The Piano Makers was selected for the World Event Young Artists 2012 event that is taking place in Nottingham, England, during 7th – 16th September 2012.

Hosted in the impressive St. Peter’s Church, in Nottingham, the piece is presented in the form of an installation, with a number of wireless headphones available to listen. The work is on loop from 11am – 4pm, 7th – 14th September.

The Piano Makers uses source material that is binaurally recorded – small microphones are worn inside the ears, resulting in recordings that, when played back over headphones, sound externalised and enveloping. The installation is completely free, and I recommend you visit the numerous other events that WEYA have organised during the week.

Programme note:

From The Piano Makers, written by D. Wainwright:

The frame and strings
of a fully strung grand piano
must withstand the pressure
of about 20 tonnes

The Kemble piano factory in Milton Keynes was the last to exist in the UK until its recent relocation to Indonesia and Japan. Using binaural recordings made during a visit to the factory before its closure, The Piano Makers is a study of piano material and manufacture, and the idea of the tension and pressure that the instrument withstands.

With thanks to Peter Corney and all of the Kemble Pianos Ltd. employees at Milton Keynes for obliging my intrusion.

This global event will showcase a selection of the best international creative talent, across a spectrum of artforms, in one city, providing an opportunity for 1000 artists from 100 nations to join together and share their creativity on an international platform.

Sounds of Our Surroundings Workshop

Dr Rob Mackay ran a sound mapping and field recording workshop as part of his artist’s residency with ‘Sea Swim‘ on the 28th July in Scarborough’s South Bay.

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Meeting at the ‘Sea Swim’ Beach Hut, participants traversed Scarborough’s South bay, mapping the soundscapes which can be heard, using a range of recording techniques. Sounds were captured using Zoom H4 recorders, a set of Soundman OKM binaural mics, and a pair of Aquarian H2a-XLR Hydrophones.

The different recordings were woven into a sound collage on a laptop in the Beach Hut on the 29th July, conveying different perspectives of the bay, both above and below the waves. The finished collage can be heard here: 

The sound recordists/workshop participants were: Tariq Emam, Rory Saxman Stephenson-Eves, Pat Lawty, John Wedgewood Clarke, Suzen Fyfe, and Martin Haswell.

‘Sea Swim’ is part of imove: a cultural Olympiad programme in Yorkshire. It is a project that explores how swimming changes the way we feel ourselves to be IN our bodies:

‘I am thrilled to be patron of this beautifully simple and simply beautiful idea.  Poetry is going down to the sea again.’

Carol Ann Duffy, The Poet Laureate, Patron of Sea Swim

SoundCloud Found Sounds: It’s raining rain!

One of my recordings has made it into the SoundCloud Found Sounds blog this Tuesday:

“The final rain sound for the day is binaural — which means it’s time to take out those headphones! It’s a high quality recording by Matt Barnard, which means that if you close your eyes and listen, you’ll start to feel like you were there amongst the rain, wind, and thunder in Fulford Road, Scarborough.”