It’s a little bit fiction, a little bit truth. A little bit abstract, a little bit flash. Every month, it’s a new mini soundscape. Always under 3 minutes in length (and often less). It’s an invitation to listen and to synchronise ears + imagination. It’s an intimate meeting in the privacy of your inbox. It’s on the last day…
))) The Sound: the giddy optimism of the new year was swiftly curtailed as the horrifying Charlie Hebdo events in Paris started unfolding. I am still finding it difficult to process the brutality of what occurred. While the worldwide news channels presenting the same images over and over in an endless loop only helped make matters more surreal, it…
I am currently putting some sort of order into a large number of audio files connected with a documentary project I am working on, so I thought it might be interesting to share a few of my own work tips on this particular process. Whether you are working towards a written piece or an audio…
Some geographical locations are inextricably linked to our personal memories. If such a sonic relationship was built over time, even years, and through multiple visits and experiences, then these locations can sometimes lose their unique identity as characteristics blur into a single ‘memory place’. This short soundscape is partly sound memory, part fiction. It distills memories of play growing up as…
Let me say first of all, I just about barely know who Rick Stein is. A quick google search tells me he is a fairly well known celebrity chef- I didn’t check if American or British or other. For the purpose of this post: not important. Anyway, this gentleman here: So how do I get to him? Indirectly via cable tv,…
In this post I pick 10 rules from Irwin Greenberg’s 100-strong ‘Painter’s Primer’ aimed at his painting students, and see how they can be adapted to sound art and field recording.
The December audio favourites, and my very best wishes for a wonderful 2015!
Let’s come clean: who actually reads those endless columns of woeful end of year ‘Best of’ lists on garish backgrounds, so beloved by magazine and newspaper critics alike? I am wondering, because come December they seem to be as punctual as Fairytale of New York coming on the radio (and I love that song, don’t…
I think it’s fair to assume that if you follow this blog you will know what a soundwalk is. But for those unfamiliar with the term: this fun and interactive practice essentially involves a small group listening, and sometimes recording, while moving through a physical space at a slow walking pace. Soundwalks can be powerful tools when used in…
One thing about our work is that sometimes it can be places you can’t. I have been missing from Paris for a good couple of years now, and miss it a lot, so when the opportunity came up to be a part of a group show in one its most iconic locations I jumped at…
))) The Play: Follow at the Abbey Theatre (Peacock stage). I am always interested in alternative uses of narrative devices, in whatever format, so was immediately intrigued when I heard of this piece of theatre as it claimed to be “inspired by sign language as a form of communication and narrative device”. As if that wasn’t challenging enough,…
1) The sudden realisation that the stranger who just bought you a pint is your favourite podcaster. 2) Knocking on any Kilfinane door to borrow a fork being perfectly acceptable behaviour. 3) The welcoming waft of hot breakfasts at Molly’s. 4) Getting blindfolded in the Library to taste Tayto crisps sandwiches. 5) The milky way, like a starry drape over your forest lodge. 6) Free beer. In the church.…
The first HearSay festival is finally here: tomorrow I will be heading over to the small village of Kilfinane in Co. Limerick, where professionals and lovers of radio and experimental sound will be gathering mecca-style to share, celebrate, get to know each other’s work – and have a couple of pints, no doubt… The lineup includes…
They are so rare, there is something precious about blue-sky autumn days, aka grab-your-bag-and-get-out days. Don’t stop to ponder, to check that weather app or to invent an excuse: who cares if the skies cover up and it starts lashing once you’re out? By then you’ll have made it out and enjoyed a breath of air that…
Today I came across a quote* by American writer Richard Ford: Do I read my old fiction? No. Why would I do that? I did the books as well as I could at the time. To go back would be a torment. It reminded me of a conversation I had over coffee not too long…
This week saw Cities and Memory launching its Hamburg Sounds Project, the release of a collection of field recordings and remixes at an impressive rate of one per hour, to reflect a day in the life of the city. Stuart Fowkes, the creator of the projects, says: ‘The sounds loosely follow my own journey around the city, from my…
))) The Book: A Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert. As some of you might know, I like my French novels. It’s one literary passion my college professors didn’t manage to extinguish by force of essays on the-critics-criticizing-the-criticism. To clarify the extent of my obsession, I once recorded my way across Belleville to find multiple voices for my…
10 Things To Do When Judging Audio Works Recently I was invited by the HearSay Festival to be one of the judges for their new audio prize, alongside some colleagues I very much admire. The experience exposed me to a wide variety of tracks running the gamut of genres and styles. It was also hard work…
Breakfast is bound to be that little more fun when you can play your own butter dish. Note: handily doubles up as a wake up call for the rest of the household. — Manipulations on a long reverb tail, recorded on a Zoom H5 Photo by La Cosa Preziosa
— So: you’re pacing this Georgian mansion recorder at hand, enjoying every creaky step and every rusty hinge. You’re pretty sure you are alone, until one of the large heavy doors coughs up someone else. The someone else smiles an unexpected hello from under their eyes, your reply gets half-caught in your throat. It’s a…
))) The Book: this month I have been enjoying ‘The Blazing World’ by Siri Hustved. Although not a sound book by any means, I have been finding it relevant as a female arts practitioner, in its exploration of the creative process. It tells the fictional tale of New York based artist Harriet ‘Harry’ Burden, who…
))) sound reflections 