Singing Below The Surface

Dunwich Beach

Bat Fox Harp

River Waveney - Aquatic Plants, Insects & Other Living Things #2

Hoverflies, Reed Pipes, Cockchafers, Bullroarers

River Waveney - Aquatic Plants, Insects & Other Living Things #1

Aeolian Fizmer

North Marsh Wind Meets The Window

A pair of Aquarian Audio H2a hydrophones spaced off a boom pole submerged around 1m. 
Unprocessed recording.
Boat motors, distant tinkles of washing foreshore debris, a creaking pontoon jetty and perhaps even the sound of trains below the river.

This recording formed part of my final interactive sound piece for my RIVERSSSOUNDS Residency May 2021.

http://actionpyramid.com/Riversssounds-Residency-2021-River-Lea-Final-Work

Hydrophone stereo pair - Trinity Buoy Wharf - The Lea meets the Thames, 14th May 2021

Aquarian H2D hydrophone pair + Sound Devices Mixpre 3

Limpets grazing in rockpool - North Traigh Eais, Isle of Barra, 25th June 2023

A very slight swell causes seaweed fronds to brush the sand, Hidden in the seaweed unseen crustacean activity.

Aquarian H2D hydrophone pair + Sound Devices Mixpre 3

Seaweed shallows near Eoligarry jetty, Isle of Barra, 26th June 2023

Single Aquarian H2D Hydrophone + Sound Devices Mixpre3. Many snapping shrimp(Alpheidae)

Hydrophone attempt from kayak SE of Fuday, Isle of Barra, 21st June 2023

Single Aquarian H2D Hydrophone + Sound Devices Mixpre3. Many snapping shrimp(Alpheidae)and a few humans!

Hydrophone from rowing skiff, Ardmhor, Isle of Barra, 30th June 2023

The amazingly reverberant acoustic of the seabed becomes very apparent when these sounds are pitched down.
Single Aquarian H2D Hydrophone + Sound Devices Mixpre3.

Snapping Shrimp (Alpheidae) slowed by 800%, Isle of Barra, 30th June 2023

Recording from the listening post which ran from Jan - Dec 2024

A stereo pair of underwater microphones immersed in the River Lea at Cody Dock relaying a hidden and otherwise imperceptible aquatic soundscape to a dedicated on-site listening post, as well as online via the Locus Sonus network.

The tidal mudflat zone on this section of the river Lea is a rare and threatened habitat type in the UK. These estuarine environments are critical to many species and to ecosystem functions. Aquatic species recorded at the site include shrimps, crabs, molluscs such as snails and clams, various fish including eel, grey mullet and flounder, and even mammals such as grey seals.

Freshwater bioacoustics is still an understudied field of research with some sound types you may hear remaining mysterious and often unclassified. The inevitable hum of human activity also permeates the water's surface and allows us to consider the way in which we may also be impacting this hidden soundscape.

The live audio stream element of this project was created in collaboration with artist Lia Mazzari and realised as part of the worldwide Locus Sonus Stream Project.

Listen To The Lea - live stream listening post record at Cody Dock

A sound piece created as a culmination of my time as artist in residence at Fjúk Arts Centre Húsavík, Iceland. For full enjoyment please listen on high quality headphones or loudspeakers. 

Composed as a loop the piece was originally presented in a disused fish storage space, with thick insulating walls and very low light. 

The work explores the relationship between people and environment in such a place, and the concluding installation featured a mix of both 'man-made’ and 'natural’ sounds. Special thanks to marine biologist Marianne Rasmussen for the contribution of Orca recordings.

Featured recordings include a distant geothermal power station, hydrophone recordings from the harbour and rocks, drifting and dripping ice on a frozen lake, bubbling mud pots, fumeroles, an Orca sighting, Orca vocalisations, fence wires in light rain, swaying harbour jetties in a strong wind and the blaring refrigeration units used by local fishermen. 

Glöggt Er Gests Eyra - Keen Are The Ears Of The Guest | 2014 | 24'09" (loop)

A presentation of sub-aquatic audio discoveries from the River Lea in Hackney, east London.
An unexpected and alien macro soundscape coexists alongside what is already audible and visible in a seemingly familiar environment. Through the means of specialised hydrophones we are able to temporarily glimpse this ancient, parallel, yet largely unnoticed existence.
Aside from volume fades the sounds used are totally unaltered recordings captured underwater in the River Lea in July 2013. They are entirely non-mechanical and natural in origin and include the sound of aquatic plants releasing microscopic oxygen bubbles and the calls of various water beetles, insects and fish. 

0.0002 Leagues Under The Lea | 2014 | 05'12"

RIVERSSSOUNDS Residency - River Lea 'Virtual Soundwalk'

A headphone based sound piece commissioned by the Tate Modern as part of the Sonic Trails project. 

The piece 'Origin' was created for Giuseppe Penone's 'Tree of 12 Meters' and uses a composition of field recordings to explore an imagined life cycle of the sculpture.

The overall project aims to use sound as a means to help visitors, particularly young people and families, engage with the building and the artwork in new and creative ways. 

Origin | 2014 | 05'54"

A short audio work inviting the listener to consider to the sounds of a sighting. 

Recorded on the estuarine banks of London's great river Thames.
on one eventful afternoon in autumn 2018 the piece looks to capture the very human response to a rare sighting, and explores how such events can bring a group of disparate people together in a collective quest to glimpse an almost unseeable spectacle. 

To be listened to in a darkened space with little chance of seeing.

Sighting | 2019 | 7'

This piece looks to explore the human perception of a single VLF (very low frequency) radio recording of both the geomagnetic phenomena known as Aurora Borealis (seen as the Northern Lights), as well as countless lightning strikes in the earth’s atmosphere. 
The signal captured by the VLF unit is a type of ‘Natural Radio’ - organic atmospheric waves of electromagnetic energy occurring at the same frequency as sound. 
The sounds you hear I recorded myself in the far Arctic North of Finland with a VLF receiver picking up the solar wind interacting with the earth’s magnetosphere, a phenomena known as the ‘Auroral Chorus’. Additionally each crackle and pop, collectively known as ‘Spherics’ also represents a lightning strike somewhere in the earth’s atmosphere. 
The work explores the theme of ‘frontiers’ twofold - both in the physical sense regarding  the boundary between earth and space known as the Ionosphere, from which these beautiful signals emanate, as well as the frontier or limit of our own human perception. This modern radio technology has enabled us to perceive these previously unknown signals which have always surrounded us and our planet, and the piece examines the very human and distinctly terrestrial interpretations and responses to this sound world. 
 
With thanks to Stephen P. McGreevy for his voice recording as well as VLF inspiration (and VLF receiver construction), as well as my German, Iranian, French, Singaporean Chinese, British, Italian and American friends and colleagues for their input.

The Auroral Chorus Just Went All Night - 60 Second Radio submission

Presented as part of 'collective-iz presents: Work Programme' at LUX

Collective-iz attempts to demystify the working life of the artist addressing and exploring various aspects of work, labour and indeed, jobs as something that plays a big part in our daily lives and consequently within our practices.

About the piece: 

Using recordings I made while working both on a remote croft on the tiny Shetland island of Foula and during a shift at an East London cafe I wanted to attempt to offset the consumerist, metropolitan world of the average city dweller against the reality of the working life of a shepherd tending to his flock. By combining these two quite disparate worlds I am looking to examine the invisible nature of many processes regarding animal products, and the consumption of them, as well as depicting the facts of life around the creation of both wool and meat. 

While creating this work I decided to incorporate some sounds of the home slaughter and butchering of a sheep, and while perhaps this makes parts of the work not the easiest listen I decided it was necessary to maintain the integrity of the piece as it serves as an illustration of a certain 'grass roots' working reality.

The Twa Mice | 2019 | 6'

Over the past few years I have accompanied Carl Sayer, Helen Greaves and Jack Greenhalgh (UCL, The Norfolk Ponds Project, University of Bristol) on fieldwork trips to Norfolk, during which I made numerous recordings of the mysterious sounds of underwater life in the farmland ponds of the area. This piece is part of an ongoing project composing audio works with the pond soundscapes. 

The piece features on BBC Radio 4 Open Country program along with recordings made by myself and Jack Greenhalgh and features the story of the restoration of these amazing habitats, as well as me speaking about my work as a recordist and sound artist. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000nlzk

A Ghost Pond Emerges

Commissioned for BBC Radio 4 Short Cuts episode 'Miniatures’. On theme with the episode the piece features some of the tiniest sounds I’ve ever recorded. These include limpets eating, hoverflies making some incredible synth-like drones while resting on my microphones, a conversation between some ants and hydrophone recordings of aquatic plant photosynthesis.

Action Pyramid

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