Monthly Archives: November 2008
Show 190: Black Water Brown Water by David Prior
Black Water Brown Water is an evolving sound piece, originally commissioned as a sound walk for the Stourport canal basins in Worcestershire, UK. The basins form an intersection between the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal and the river Severn and the piece is really about the relationship between these two water systems.
My ‘way in’ was the experience of standing on a lock-gate that separates the canal and the river and on one side there was this chaotic, gushing, brown water and on the other, the water was controlled, black and serene. Black Water Brown Water. The piece is based on an imagined dialogue between the great canal engineer James Brindley and Sabrina, Goddess of the river Severn – but in a way it is a dialogue between the two water systems themselves with these two characters giving voice to the myths that represent them.
The language of the work draws heavily on John Milton¹s Comus and to a lesser extent Michael Drayton¹s Poly Olbion, both of which make reference to Sabrina. Additionally, I¹ve taken a lot from the biography of James Brindley – both real and imagined.
In the original walk, visitors pick up an mp3 player and listen to the piece on a small, man-made island that sits between these water systems. This version though has been re-edited specifically for RADIA.
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In Black Water Brown Water, the readers were John Hall as James Brindley and Ella Turk-Richards as Sabrina.
The Pieces was commissioned by British Waterways with funds from the Arts Council of England, Arts & Business new partners, Advantage West Midlands, Wyre Forest District Council, Heritage Lottery Fund and Stourport Forward.
Black Water Brown Water was created by David Prior for liminal and this radio mix comes from Sound Art Radio, Dartington.
For more information on liminal, please go to www.liminal.org.uk
Show 189: Bloody Manaus by Pali Meursault
At the beginning of winter 2007-2008, Pali Meursault spent 15 days in Mamori Lake with other sound artists from all around the world in the frame of Mamori Art Lab. Then he spent a week in Manaus and made field-recordings for a radio project. The final shape of the piece was not predetermined: a material started to exist from his drifts through the city, through the people he met. When Radio Grenouille invited him to make a Radia show, this gave him a frame.
So Bloody Manaus is at the same time a travel diary, the recomposition of a soundscape and an immersion into this singular city. It’s also a subjective and inevitably superficial point of view, something between sociological amazement and musical fascination for a deafening city.
Pali Meursault is a sound artist who lives and works in Grenoble, France. His works are published on Universinternational in France, Entr’acte in Great Britain and And/oar in the USA. He regularly collaborates with the artists collective Ici-Même.
Show 188: It’s a Money Party – a global youtube election redux
It’s a Money Party – a global youtube election redux, brought to you by Berlin Backyard Radio. Featuring excerpts from youtube remixed news and comedy, presented by the circus runaways.
The circus runaways left Manchester to follow the circus and got stuck somewhere in the midwestern American state of Ohio. This is a youtube mashup of the most popular videos generated around that global media circus called the American Presidential election. Guests include Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel, comedians and journalists. Of course, some comments made it into the mix. As the election is nearing an end, this is a little slice of the cacophony of media that made its way onto your only global video sharing site. One day, the runaways hope to make it home to Europe.