Stereo pair of contacts on a water outlet at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell.

Outlet

The ghostly sound of an early (and therefore rather noisier) wind turbine on a very windy day in North Devon, UK. Recorded using a matched pair of contact microphones attached to the base of the turbine.

Wind Turbine

Finding myself in Paris exactly 50 years after Perec wrote 'Tentative d'épuisement d'un lieu parisien' (An attempt at exhausting a place in Paris), it felt like a timely opportunity to follow in his footsteps. So, like Perec, I made myself comfortable at a café in the corner of Place Saint-Sulpice, ordered a coffee and set about noticing "...what happens when nothing happens."

Another Attempt at Exhausting a Place 30-11-24 Excerpt

After a couple of minutes spent in stillness, listening to a soundscape muffled and muted by thick flint and stone walls, I placed the portable recorder on the communion rail and pressed pause to begin recording. Picking up the soft-bristled, sturdily crafted broom, I began sweeping the chancel floor.

Sweeping St Mary's 10-09-24

A contemplative soundwalk from Wallingford hospital across the Reading Road, following Winterbrook to the Thames Path and St Leonard's church.

Winterbrook Soundwalk

An evening walking meditation in the snow. The snowfall makes you very aware of your footsteps and the slightest changes in the quality of the ice. The blanket of snow quietens distant sounds, encouraging you to notice the softer sounds you might otherwise miss, like the slow dripping of the drains along the road verges.

Snow Walking Meditation (Excerpt)

Listening to the sound of a gate in need of oiling. Recorded using a matched pair of contact microphones.

Gate Tuning

A walking meditation along a stretch of shoreline by Heysham Nuclear Power Station in Lancashire, UK. (Tascam DR-05 using built-in microphones)

Walking Meditation at Heysham

The first night staying in an AirBnB in St Denis, Paris and you can't sleep for the unrelenting trickling of water through the radiator next to your head. After ten minutes or so of listening, familiarising myself with the various streams of sound within it, I drift off (stereo pair of AKG C411s with SD MIxPre6).

Écouter le radiateur

Ambient recording of the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. Best listened to on headphones (recorded with a Sennheiser Ambeo ambisonic microphone later decoded to binaural stereo, otherwise no post-processing)

ICU Royal Berkshire Hospital (Main Room)

Ambient recording of the isolation bay in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. Best listened to on headphones (recorded with a Sennheiser Ambeo ambisonic microphone later decoded to binaural stereo, otherwise no post-processing)

ICU Royal Berkshire Hospital (Isolation Bay)

Ambient recording of the Bay 1 in the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. Best listened to on headphones (recorded with a Sennheiser Ambeo ambisonic microphone later decoded to binaural stereo, otherwise no post-processing)

ICU Royal Berkshire Hospital (Bay 1)

Recorded in the graveyard outside the church building on a bright spring morning at 05:25 on 3rd May 2020 during the Coronavirus lockdown. Recorded on a Sound Devices MixPre6 with two Sennheiser MKH8020s either side of a Jecklin disk (no post-production).

St Leonard's Church, Woodcote IDCD2020 (Sennheiser MKH8020s + Jecklin Disk)

Recorded in the graveyard outside the church building on a bright spring morning at 05:10 on 3rd May 2020 during the Coronavirus lockdown. Recorded on a Sound Devices MixPre6 with Sennheiser Ambeo Ambisonics microphone, converted to binaural stereo with Harpex and Reaper (no other post-production).

St Leonard's Church, Woodcote IDCD2020 (Sennheiser Ambeo Binaural)

With a focus on contemplative sound art practices, a noisy silence exists to help us listen more carefully to the world and to ourselves.

a noisy silence

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