To Hao Hao & Xing Hui...

The title Sacred Voices,  was suggested by the use of and manipulation of sound materials which are considered to symbolise religion, culture, or species. The piece was composed mainly from material that had been recorded during a research trip to China in May, 2013. Much of the material was derived from a rare opportunity to record Giant Pandas in their enclosures at the Dujangyan Panda Reintroduction Centre, alongside a recording made in Xi’an of monks singing in a Buddhist Temple and carts being driven up hutongs in Beijing. These sounds (voices) are explored in a manner straddling on the very edge of real and unreal sound worlds and act as expressions or traces of places or moments in time.  

Sacred voices attempts to convey the idea of a series of momentary structures and forms experienced in space and time.  Throughout the work, sounds are presented as ‘moments’ in time and, space- the source of which is left up to the listener to imagine.  These moments are then expanded and explored throughout the piece- with each idea being mined for potential developments. The idea for this derived from my fascination with the manipulation of  field recordings, but also with sound design and spatialisation, both within the concert hall, and in a piece itself.

Along with 我們的歌 (Our Song), this work forms a collection of acousmatic works exploring sounds recorded in China in May, 2013 as part of the SCEN Music Project(www.scenmusic.info). In contrast to 我們的歌 (Our Song), where the sounds presented clearly provided a sense of place and culture, I wanted to carry out a manipulation of some of the same sound material, but without forcing any expectation of a particular place or culture onto the listener. In this piece, the manipulation of source material through both space and time was central to my train of thought. 

Sacred Voices was composed from December, 2013 to January, 2014 in the studios of De Montfort University (Leicester, England, UK). The work was commissioned by Reinhard Fuchs and Forum Liverpool with support from Scotland China Education Network, University of Aberdeen Confucius Institute and De Montfort University Confucius Institute. It was a finalist in the Concours Destellos 2014 competition.  Special thanks to John Young.

Sacred Voices (2014)- Finalist Destellos 2014

- https://www.facebook.com/snowpoet
- https://twitter.com/snow_poet

- inspired by the poem 'i will wade out' by e.e. cummings
- recorded on 6/11/13 at giant wafer studios
- recorded & mixed by alex killpartrick
- produced by chris hyson & alex killpartrick

iTunes

alive with closed eyes

Talasgair was made from recordings made in Talisker bay on the Isle of Skye. The main material consists of recordings made of the sea and barnacles on the rocks at low tide. While much of the material has been transformed, characteristics of the source sounds are present throughout. The rising and falling of waves is a major theme of the piece as are the ‘barnacle showers’ that appear throughout the second half. Talasgair was inspired by the grandeur and elemental rawness of the relationship between the landscape and ocean and is informed by memories of standing ‘on the shore where the great white mouth opens between two hard jaws’ (from Sorley Maclean’s poem Tràighean).

Talasgair (2018)

Zoë Skoulding with Alan Holmes live at the Berlin Poetry Festival, 2nd July 2009.

The house where it is impossible not to fall in love

The old walls

You will live in your own catherdral

With Sujatha Menon, who wrote and sang the vocal part, and thanks also to David Holland.
Film for the track: https://vimeo.com/22446400

Talasgair (2018)

David Holland

Related tracks