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)

Sherbrooke --> Jean-Drapeau, Montreal - Quebec

The recording begins with my walk to the subway, the sound of my footsteps, the trickling of a water feature as I walk through a small park. As I enter the subway (4.02) you can hear the audible change in pressure as I am blasted by a wave of warm air. The subway reveals new sounds: an accordion player whose music reverberates through the tunnels, the sound of conversation between passengers, as well as the very distinctive train noises. The amplified audio idents (8.55) sound reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the trains are transported by wheels instead of electrified tracks. 

Over the course of the recording you hear a number of different sound spaces within the Montreal subway system: the quiet meditative sounds of the outdoors, a dynamic interior world of tonality from buskers and conversation to the roar of the trains. You can hear small snatches of conversation giving little insights in the day-to-day lives of the passengers. The piece finishes on words of parting encouragement between two swimmers who had only recently met on transit. Both were competing in the world masters championships, held in the Olympic Park (20.30). 

Full blog post here: http://northamericansounddiaries.tumblr.com/post/102330978990/sherbrooke-to-jean-drapeau-station-montreal

Montreal, Subway Soundwalk

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

Inverness to Edinburgh - Sonic Memories and Geographies is a series of recordings taken on a 200 mile journey by bike across Scotland, traveling over hills and wild camping. The real and imaginary space of the recordings is explored through presenting the original unaltered field recordings (Geographies) combined with sound compositions based on imagination and memory (Memories). 

The locations in the recordings are (in chronological order);

Loch Ness - Recordings taken from in and around the Loch using a combination of binaural microphones and hydrophones. The composed piece focuses on the resonance of the water - processing and rearranging the audio to reflect this.

Invernahavon - Contact mics were placed on the branches of a tree, picking up the ferocious wind as it interacted with the tree. The composition creates a hyper-real version of this, focusing on the tonality produced by the interaction between wind and tree, morphing the short impulse sounds into pitched material.   

Pitlochry Botanic Garden - The recording focuses on a wooden set of wind chimes. These were played in a performative manner to highlight the range of sounds possible. The core of the composition is the manipulation of a short melody written at the site, this is combined with the morphed sound of the wind chimes.   

Pitlochry Suspension Bridge - Explores the interior resonance of the Pitlochry suspension bridge by placing contact mics on the bridge itself. The composition enhances the lower frequencies of the bridge and slowly morphs them into tonal drones - reflecting on how I imagine the bridge to experience sound running through it.   

Edinburgh - Features the sounds of three different places, relating to the city's size in comparison to the other locations I visited. These locations are: the washing machine in the campsite (much needed after the long bike ride), an installation with running water at the Royal Scottish Academy and creaking floorboards in the Edinburgh museum. The composition focuses on the creaking floorboards in the Edinburgh Museum. A specific feedback system using a series of single sample delays was created for this, reflecting on the history of the place and how it constantly loops back to its own history through the displays. 

The original field recordings and memory compositions can be heard separately at Cities and Memory http://citiesandmemory.com/2014/05/searching-for-monstrous-sounds-in-loch-ness/ 


Inverness To Edinburgh: Sonic Memories and Geographies

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...?)

Montreal, Subway Soundwalk

Dan Tapper Magnetic Audio

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