Reading, UK, Seville, Spain by Duncan Whitley for Soundart Radio

The piece weaves together a series of field recordings from two projects, the first of which examines, critiques and celebrates the language of football crowd sound, the other, a collaboration with sound artist and composer James Wyness, takes as its subject the ritual Holy Week processions of Seville, Spain.
These two phonographic projects develop through growing archives of multichannel sound, which Duncan uses as raw material for his sound installations.

“My artistic practice is orientated towards sound installation, and radio presents quite a different challenge. In this piece I wanted to see how it felt to slip between the two dynamic and contrasting soundscapes of Holy Week in Seville and a football match at Reading FC’s Madejski Stadium. The editing is simple and transparent, working with real-time events and with few cuts.”

Duncan’s work appropriates forms and conventions of sound installation, field recording, oral history, and sonic archive. In ongoing sound recording projects Duncan has focussed on collecting, analysing, categorising and editing raw material extracted from the social and urban fabric. Underpinning his work is an interest in the social and documentary value of sound as a medium, and the use of sound and new media to develop alternative narrative forms. Whilst displaying a critical interest in sound and audio work, Duncan remains committed to producing intuitive, accessible work for broad audiences.

James Wyness is a sound artist and composer, working almost exclusively in the electroacoustic medium. He produces soundwalks, work for radio, sound installation and multichannel concert works. He is currently studying a PhD in composition at the University of Aberdeen.

Radia 149 is a collage for radio made by Richard Povall of Aune Head Arts, a contemporary arts organisation based on Dartmoor National Park. Aune Head Arts uses the arts to develop and nurture understanding about rural life, trains and mentors younger professional and pre-professional artists,
encourages and supports cross-artform working and works closely and collaboratively with communities. This programme features sound recordings made at various events over the last year. Richard also produces a regular show for Soundart Radio.

http://www.auneheadarts.org.uk/

In early October, artists Jem Finer and Ansuman Biswas visited Dartington College of Arts as part of the Arts and Ecology MA. In collabortation with Soundart Radio a home made radio telescope was constructed with a receiving device tuned to 20.1 mhz, allowing us to pick up radiation from storms on Jupiter. These recordings were all made between 6 and 9 pm on 4th October as we stood out under the stars waiting and listening, and includes interviews with Jem Finer.

3 pieces by artist Stormsmith Nomi at Soundart Radio, Dartington, UK, on the theme of ecology: Eat Me; Home Sofa Earth Home; Return Return.

Stormsmith Nomi presents 3 of her recent works on the theme of ecology. ‘Eat Me’ concerns relationships between food, farming, supermarkets and the individual; ‘Home Sofa Earth Home’ is a true story of belonging and belongings; ‘Return Return’ examines the choices we make in what we believe to be real.

A site-specific field recording composition.
In 2012 the Olympics will come to London. The site, situated in north east London between Stratford, Hackney Wick and Pudding Mill Lane, currently a hotchpotch of industrial estates, disused waterways, railway sidings, traveller ‘s homes and allotments will soon be the biggest building site in Europe. In just over five years the entire area will be cleared, it’s map re-drawn ; transformed firstly into state of the art sports facilities, then re-regenerated to provide more homes yet another shopping centre and eventually re-sold to the public. The same public who, through government compulsory purchase order, have just bought the land once and will of course foot all the bills in the meantime. The latest leap in the budget for the whole project will likely cost the arts council 35% of its annual government subsidy.

Produced by Lucinda Guy and Alexander Paterson.
“Originally we thought about doing a dance/movement piece for radio, but as we worked we became more interested in the variety of sounds the floors here make. Some of the studios we recorded in have been here for decades, as part of Dartington College of Arts which was formed in 1961. The college is now to be closed down, or move 80 miles to merge with a larger institution. It’s the smallest academic institution in England and is no longer considered viable. This piece is a homage to the floors of Dartington with their unique creaks and squeaks, and to a college which could not be replicated anywhere else.”