Monthly Archives: January 2011

#25

Show 305: In an Octopus’s Den by Octopus Collective

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The making of Octopus’s Den was initiated by Knut Aufermann and Sarah Washington (AKA Mobile Radio) during a short visit they made to our HQ in Barrow Park. They introduced us to the technique of pause-button recording which is a simple way of realtime editing of live recording using the pause button on the recorder (in this case the Zoom H4n) and suggested that we use it to make a piece of work based on the activity in our office and studios. What you hear is drawn from both significant and mundane events in our collective life over the last few months including:

our ancient plumbing system after flushing the loo
an office meeting to discuss the strategy for our application to Arts Council England for portfolio funding for 2012-15
pieces commissioned for our events on the Bandstand in the park from artists Paul Rooney (Spit Valve) and Mark Vernon (Christmas Rewind)
clearing up glass from a window broken by vandals
John learning the violin
moving equipment around
walking upstairs
and much more…..

we hope you find something to enjoy.

Octopus Collective is a not-for-profit Sound Arts company led by three professional artists with an associate membership drawn from a broad range of practitioners working from the old Park Keeper’s house in the middle of Barrow Park in Barrow in Furness. Alongside their own practice they curate the Full of Noises festival which is an annual programme of experimental music and sound art based in Cumbria UK. The first FON Festival took place in October 2009 with a programme that included 4 residencies/commissions, a weekend of live performances, radio broadcasts and a workshop programme.

www.octopuscollective.org
www.fonfestival.org

#25

Show 303: Paivascapes

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paivascapes: show 303

This piece, created by the Binaural/Nodar collective, is a sound narrative about the Paiva River, located in Northern Portugal. This river runs for about 112 Km. It’s spring is near the village of Carapito in Moimenta da Beira Municipality and it ends in the Douro River, near Castelo de Paiva. Not many years ago the Paiva was considered one of the least polluted rivers in Europe and is classified by EU as a Site of Community Importance within the Natura 2000 network.

The Paiva is a mountain river with a rocky bed (granite and slate stone) that can either show its rebellious side (strong currents associated with the seasonal variations of its torrent and with the narrowness and unevenness of its bed in several areas), or gently slide through terraces of agricultural fields, crossing small rural riverside villages that live in close connection with it.

The narrative revolves around the uncertainties that exist about the exact spot where the river starts. You can listen a villager pinpointing the exact locations where different small streams gather to form the river, others discuss different theories and don’t reach any positive conclusion and one lady asserts that the river begins in two different locations: one of them being an hermitage on top of a mountain, the Senhora da Lapa, where people gather in pilgrimage once a year. Other themes are also present: the agricultural use of riverside lands, the names of particular “poços” or depressions where people claim “the river is bottomless”, the locations of the watermills where people used to grind corn and the places where fish was or still is abundant.

The recordings of the river itself are taken from different perspectives: overall soundscapes of different sections of the river and details of the water flow and the local fauna, both recorded above water and underwater.
Binaural/Nodar is will be organizing, from March 4th to 8th, the Paiva River Sound Festival, that will include a series of exhibitions, performances and conferences totally dedicated to the Paiva River and will take place in several venues and riverside locations in the Paiva valley. In particular, around 15 international artists will present the result of the projects they began last year in a series of artist residencies in different locations along the Paiva River. For more information you can visit http://binauralmedia.org or http://paivascapes.org.

Brodcasted from 17/01/11 > 23/01/11