Underwater sounds of the oysterbeds at Lympstone on the Exe Estuary recorded using a hydrophone on a creative lab workshop day with Tidelines.uk sharing knowledge around many aspects of the Estuary.

Oysterbed at Lympstone on the Exe estuary

On 30th January the Aubergines met to explore music for our concert on April 7th, where we wil play in Exeter University before the BSO, and the BSO will play a new piece by the Azerbaijanian composer Frangiz Ali-Zadeh called 'Cosmology'. We decided to make a piece that has some connections with her piece, and started by exploring, in 6 groups, our own 'cosmic' music, which we played in different spaces in the Great Hall at Exeter. Here it is, without any editing - played by Jamie, Deb, Ana, Sarah, Thomasin, Rick, Anna, Chris, Zara, Katherine, Martin, Georgie, Ben, Hugh, Paul, Emma and Vicky.

Cosmology in 6 sections - version 1

A Sound Walking podcast conversation between artist Volkhardt Müller and Emma Welton, in three movements. Many of Emma's Exeter Sound Walks have brought her to the city’s limits which for various reasons we can’t or don’t transgress. Volkhardt is an Exeter based multidisciplinary artist with a professional interest in landscape, how people shape it and how it shapes people. They walked the City Edge, one evening in May. Commissioned by Art Work Exeter for Art Week Exeter 2022.

from Emma:
Do you tune into the sounds of your environment when you’re out and about? I think of them as neverending music composed, both deliberately and accidentally, by humans and more than humans together.

I am Emma Welton, a violinist, composer and sound artist living in Exeter, a small city in South West England. I have mapped Sound Walks in my neighbourhood over the course of a year, mostly alone, but sometimes with other listeners. Many of these walks have brought me to the city’s limits which for various reasons we can’t or don’t transgress. I invited artist Volkhardt Müller to walk the City Edge with me, one evening in May. 

Volkhardt is an Exeter based multidisciplinary artist with a professional interest in landscape, how people shape it and how it shapes people. He grew up in Swabian Jura in Southern Germany, and has lived in Exeter with his family for twenty years.

He is a member of artist collective Bind Ditch, and an experienced socially engaged practitioner. Volkhardt has produced a rich and multi-award-winning body of work in response to the city of Exeter. He is also a craftsman and a translator of popular science books.

Over these three podcasts we’ll walk from the bottom of the Exe valley to the top of a hill, listening all the while. You can think of the podcasts as three movements of a symphony taking place at the end of a day, whose music moves not only through time, but also space.

The first part of our walk went north along the Exe Flood Relief Channel to the river Exe. We met just after a rainstorm outside Exwick Parish Hall, on a small road that crosses the valley.

We recorded our conversation and the sounds around us with binaural microphones so if you listen through headphones you hear the sounds surround you as they did us.

An Evening Symphony, With Barbed Wire, 1st Movement: Swifts, motorbikes, barbed wire

'Anthropocene' was written for the Nieuw Ensemble in early 2018, and performed in the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. It was inspired by the ancient forest close to Hambach, Germany, which has been 90% destroyed over the last 30 years to make room for Europe's biggest coal mine. Activists have saved the remaining forest from destruction. The piece is accompanied by a video of images from Hambach forest and the coal mine (coming soon).

'Anthropocene' for the Nieuw Ensemble

Earth's Gift is an 18 minute piece which takes as its inspiration the relationship between humanity and fossil fuels. The music (for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, piano and electronics) combines with visuals by Emma van der Steen. This excerpt accompanies visuals of the docks and harbours of Amsterdam

An Evening Symphony, With Barbed Wire, 1st Movement: Swifts, motorbikes, barbed wire

emma welton

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