Light Night Leeds 2023 –

Yes I am at it again!

I am taking part in Leeds Light Night with my installation Ambisonic which will be part of Pixelation at stage@leeds at the University of Leeds next Thursday and Friday evening (October 12th & 13th) 6-9pm. If you are in Leeds or West Yorkshire come along and hear my latest experiments with sound.

See below for links for info and also a taster of my latest work using binaural recording techniques.

Light Night Leeds 2023 at stage@leeds, University of Leeds https://stage.leeds.ac.uk/events/pixelation-leeds-light-night-2023/

Here is a little taster of what you will be able to hear. Best listened on headphones btw.

frogspawn · Bookflip Track

I am happy to announce that i am part of Cities and Memories Polar Sounds Project. You can find more information about the project at the link below. My piece is called Rhythms of the Ice.

Cities and Memories collect sounds from around the world, by asking people to submit recordings ,and then asking sound artists, musicians and creatives to take those recorded sounds and remix and re-imagine them into something else. This is the third Cities and Memories project I have been involved with. I have previously been part of Protest and Politics and The Orange Garden.

Polar Sounds Project

A new piece of work exploring binaural recording techniques has recently been accepted for the exhibition event ‘Tipping Point’ at Fringe Arts Bath 2022. More details soon…

My latest project involvment is Cities and Memories: The Orange Garden https://citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden/

This is 50 sound artists creating pieces using the same audio source material, in this instance a recording made in an Italian garden. My piece is called ‘Fragments’

I really enjoyed being creative again and although I have been working on a few projects over the last year my main concern has been home working and homeschooling. Looking forward to having some time to myself to concentrate on sound (all being well autumn 2021!)

So due to the lock down I am now at home with 2 small children trying to do some of my day job and keep the kids entertained. One of my son’s teacher is setting challenges each day . One of the challenges was to write a sea shanty. Well this felt like a challenge that could become a bigger project. I also discovered a week ago that my Edirol recording device – an RO9 that i have had for over 10 years – has been wrecked by the AA batteries that i left in (silly thing for a technician to do)! So i decided to invest in a new recording device – a Tascam DR40X ( we have 2 at work). Anyway back to the challenge. Max (my son) wrote some words ( with help from me) and I recorded him ‘singing’ the words using the Tascam. We all helped with the background music ( including our 2.5 yr old Lily). Max helped me mix the track.

After a couple of years in the creative wilderness ( having a second baby) i am trying to find the time to start some new projects. Last October i collaborated with fellow technicians from University of Leeds School of Performance & Cultural Industries to create a piece on the subject of sustainability. Artistic Director of stage@leeds Steve Ansell (my boss) wanted to create an urban jungle in the theatre foyer. Using lighting (including a bike powered EL wire sign saying HELP), sound, projection and a ‘tree’ made from crates and left over materials, we created the piece for the evening of Light Night 2019.

The sound was created using a combination of recorded ‘human’ jungle noises, soundscapes from both the urban and natural landscape and a live loop pedal that allowed visitors to add their own jungle sounds into the mix.

Currently i am working on a couple of ideas using an instrument i got for Christmas 2018 and also ideas around audio books for children.

I have two new lots of work to post about….

Firstly  I have been working with Dark Horse Theatre Company as a Sound Designer for a new show that opens at the end of the month at Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield: You Have Been Watching tours venues around Yorkshire – see here for links:

http://www.thelbt.org/You-Have-Been-Watching

Dark Horse Theatre Company website

Secondly i created a piece for a Cities and Memories called Protest and Politices – where artists took sound recordings taken from protests and demos around the world and remixed them. click here for a link to the  website: http://citiesandmemory.com/protest/

Back in June we installed the collaborative installation piece Sea into the Horby Room in Liverpool Library. The exhibition was on for two months and in early July during the Book Fair at the Library I had a separate wireless headphone installation going. People were able to wander around the Book Exhibition and listen to my sound piece with Liz Cashdan’s words and voice coming through the sea sounds.

as promised…

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Currently working on a new collaborative project which will be premiered as part of the Liverpool Book Exhibition in July.

Along with my long term collaborators Pat Hodson and Liz Cashdan, I am working on a piece on the theme of Shakespeare and the sea (an excerpt of the sound coming soon).  The installation which includes a hanging book and sound on headphones (including a poem written by Liz), will be part of the Liverpool book exhibition in the Hornby room of Liverpool’s central library during the Liverpool Book Fair in July.