Great visit, Dan! The Invanpah solar-electric facility is controversial for the fact that the intense solar-light focusing causes birds to be killed by burning from the intense light/heat at the focal-point! Conventional photo-voltaic systems do not have this problem! SpM

An extract from an episode of The Reunion that I produced for BBC Radio 4, broadcast on 3rd May 2013.

. . .

Sue MacGregor reunites the pioneers behind The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), the radical community that launched the Green Movement in Britain from a disused slate quarry in Machynlleth, Wales.

Led by an entrepreneurial aristocrat turned environmentalist, a group of self-declared 'Crazy Idealists' arrived at 'The Quarry' in 1973 with an urgent mission. The limits to growth and resources had been forecast, the nuclear threat was real, and fundamentally new ways of living had to be found that were more self-sufficient, locally-focused, and alternative to the assumptions of modern industrial society.

From humble beginnings as a tiny commune sidelined by the scientific establishment, CAT went on to build some of Britain's first ever electricity generating windmills and the largest solar roof in Europe. They attracted the patronage of the royal family, the suspicions and support of their local Welsh neighbours, and the interest of tens of thousands of visitors. Forty years on, the alternatives that CAT pioneered are becoming mainstream, and the Centre's work is more relevant than ever.

Joining Sue MacGregor are: Mark Matthews, the Centre's first director; architect Roderick James, who designed the first complex of buildings; Bob Todd, the Centre's pioneering technical expert; Liz Todd, Bob's wife and an early volunteer, who raised her young family on the site; and Des Rees, the Welsh builder who unexpectedly found himself immersed in The Quarry's unique way of life.

Producer: Patrick Sykes
Series Producer: David Prest
The Reunion is a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

The Reunion — The Centre for Alternative Technology (Extract)

Based around a recent trip to the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California, this diary includes the drive up to the facility and sounds recorded by the perimeter fence.

Ivanpah generates electricity with 1000’s of computer controlled mirrors programmed to move with the sun and reflect sunlight onto three huge water towers, the heat converts the water to steam, this moves turbines generating electricity. Ivanpah opened in February 2014 and powers 140,000 homes.

When I walked up to the mirrors I found that they made some really interesting sounds. An electronic tone signals each movement of the mirrors, this is followed by the actual mechanical movement of the mirrors which sounds like creaking floorboards.

It would be interesting to have gone closer and recorded the steam powered turbines but the facility was closed off so I couldn’t go further than the perimeter fence.

* In the diary I say there are millions of mirrors, the actual figure is 170,000 mirrors. My response came from the sheer awe of the site. 

More information on Ivanpah can be found here: http://ivanpahsolar.com/

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System -  Sound Diary

Toys in the Rain

Solar Flare is an electroacoustic piece that should be listened to with closed eyes.

It is born out of a fascination with the power of music to distort our subjective perception of time. Just as the act of approaching a black hole or giant star in space, hypothetically speaking, would cause time to slow down because of their enormous gravitational fields, so it is that certain sound-objects and sonic processes in a work can be said to have a greater gravitational influence upon others, thus contributing a greater role in the manipulation of time. In this piece the juxtaposition and amalgamation of sonic structures that possess different temporal characteristics (length of constituent sounds; interonset invervals of these sounds; and the presence, or absence, of isochronous pulse) is intended to create a hierarchy of sonic gravity that drives the narrative through the tension between temporal continuity and discontinuity.

The piece is constructed from two sources of sound: recordings of a prepared piano and a traditional bell alarm clock. In an essentially 'organic' process, these sounds have been often been processed and re-processed several times such that the original identity of the source material is almost completely disguised.

Artwork: 'Circle Sort' from Code Poetry by Dan Tapper 
visualcodepoems.tumblr.com 

Solar Flare

Original intention was to just record the sound of wind through gap between some windows, but a few other things decided to get in on it; building maintenance moving garbage bins in and out, fridge (pictured) coming on, and a few others.

Domestic Orchestra

Manipulations of a short nonsense-syllable loop, using a Zoom RFX-300 and Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man. Despite that, it still seems to have come out in mono.

Who Until Recently Said

This piece explores the sounds of a rather large heat sink. Multiple hits, scrapes, strokes and zings were sampled, sequenced and processed to create the arrangement. The piece was performed at the Toronto Reference Library, in 2015, with Darren Copeland, artistic director at New Adventures in Sound Art. The piece was amplified through highly directional, ultrasonic speakers, called audio spotlights. The performance involved moving the spotlights around the space, so that the sounds would bounce off of the many surfaces of the venue, including, walls, ceiling, floor, pillars as well as the audience. This had the effect of changing peoples perceptions of the color and location of the sound.  

Heat Sink (Revisited)

LIGO Sound 1135136350 - Dur 5 - Hp 20 - Lp 400 - Su 1p0 - Fs 400

improvisation on january 8th 2016, gastown, vancouver
Ben Wylie: prepared guitar/tapes/harmonica/monochord/fx
Alex Spence: clarinet/no-input mixer/tapes/induction coil/fx

January 8th

Thunderhead by Dan Tapper. Taken from the Ven EP available from Elm Records 17/09/2016.  

05. Dan Tapper - Thunderhead

A recording of a red squirrel attacking my Zoom H2 WAV recorder while recording on Brownsea Island (maybe it thought the grey furry windshield was an invading grey squirrel...?)

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System - Sound Diary

Dan Tapper Magnetic Audio

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