This is a mix of some of the interviews collected so far in the course of working on a project called "Fabric of Oxford". This is a KNITSONIK project by Felicity Ford, commissioned by The Museum of Oxford and produced by Oxford Contemporary Music. The project coincides with the 40th birthday of The Museum of Oxford and celebrates the life of Oxford city through the textiles that are or were important to its inhabitants. These interviews were held on a collections day at the museum, where members of the public were invited to bring significant objects along to the museum to be archived and documented for posterity.

Thanks to Prue Drew, Marilyn Ching and Hazel Bleay for sharing your textile stories with KNITSONIK.

Some Fabric of Oxford Interviews.WAV

A rough edit of interviews and field recordings relating to memories of Miss Doering and the clothes she wore in the streets of Oxford (especially around Port Meadow)up until the middle of the 1900s. Miss Doering cared for the horses on the meadow and was known for her love of these animals and for smelling strongly of the paraffin with which she used to heat the shed in which she lived. Comrades in Oxford are equally emphatic that her nickname was Paraffin Liz and that is was Paraffin Ann, but everyone agrees that her real name was Miss Doering.

Miss Doering - rough edit of interviews and field recordings

I am running a workshop with some young people in Oxford as part of The Fabric of Oxford, and have been devising a format for documenting outfits in sounds and words. I decided to use the example of my own outfit today as a kind of case-study for the concept and mixed a simple set of interview answers with some field recordings relating to the context of this specific outfit. It was also an exercise in recording with a Zoom H2 as I have not used this model of recorder before and we will be using it in the workshop. Always good to take these things for a test spin!

"My Clothes" piece (experiment)

This recording was made with Margaret Black, a shepherd from Kentmere in the Lake District. We were feeding a bale of hay to the pedigree flock of Rough Fell sheep that belongs to her daughter, Amy.

Amy is the third generation (maybe more, I'm not sure how far shepherding goes back in the family) in a succession of amazing Rough Fell shepherds. Clara Black is shown in the photo; she is the mother of Margaret Black and Amy Black is her grand-daughter. Clara is retired now, but she always had Rough Fell sheep and Margaret has her own flocks as well as helping Amy with hers. This is one of many families in the Lake District who keep Rough Fell sheep. This breed is especially suited to the climate and terrain on the High Fells.

When thinking of appropriate sonic selections to accompany sheep references in Handel's Messiah, this is one of the recordings of which I immediately thought in relation to the line 'He Shall Feed His Flock Like A Shepherd'. Of course I would like to change it to 'She Shall Feed Her Flock Like A Shepherd' given the context of this lovely recording. 

Amy's sheep were originally recorded for my sound piece in the Wonder of Wool exhibition at Rheged, January 2012. 

You are welcome to download these sheep for use in the forthcoming Instant Orchestra rendition of Handel's Messiah
7.45pm doors, 8.15pm performance
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford
FREE

He Shall Feed His Flock Like A Shepherd

This recording was made in Estonia on Janni Talu, the farm of Joel and Julika Roos. Joel and Julika keep a mixed flock that includes Estonian Native sheep, Ålands sheep, Finull sheep and Swedish Finewool sheep. 

To create the recording I suspended microphones around the area where the sheep were grazing one warm summer afternoon in May 2012. I wandered off and left the microphones to record the sheep eating their hay bales, grazing in the grass, scratching themselves against the trees and moving around in an unbothered sheepy way. Sheep are prey in terms of the food chain and so are quiet when simply hanging out by themselves so as to avoid attracting the attention of an apex predator. Consequently, unless there are lambs and ewes calling to each other, a flock that's just hanging out tends to be quite quiet as you can hear in this recording.

Joel and Julia were incredibly generous to me on my Estonian trip, allowing me to stay with them to learn about native Estonian sheep and wool. I loved meeting their flock and the huge Maremma sheep dogs that protect them from the wolves.

The recording was made during a residency funded by MoKS Center for Art & Social Practice and the British Council, Estonia. The theme of the residency was that of a wool exchange; I brought artefacts and sounds from the UK wool industry to share and exchange for artefacts and sounds from the Estonian wool industry.

You are welcome to download these sheep for use in the forthcoming Instant Orchestra rendition of Handel's Messiah
7.45pm doors, 8.15pm performance
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford
FREE

Pastoral Symphony

This recording was made with Brian Knowles who, together with his wife, Jane Knowles, keeps a large flock of Rough Fell sheep up in Shap. In these recordings Brian is bringing food to the sheep. It is wet and rainy and their fields are close to a busy road. 

I love these recordings because you can hear so much of the texture of Cumbria in it; the wet road and the muddy ground, the wind and the barking of nearby sheepdogs. You can also hear the individuality in the baas of different sheep; each one sounds unique.

Jane and Brian Knowles's sheep were originally recorded for my sound piece in the Wonder of Wool exhibition at Rheged, January 2012. 

You are welcome to download these sheep for use in the forthcoming Instant Orchestra rendition of Handel's Messiah
7.45pm doors, 8.15pm performance
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford
FREE

There Were Shepherds Abiding In The Fields

This recording was made in Shetland at the Voe District and Agricultural Show. It features the sounds of the ever present Shetland wind, and a young Shetland lamb in a pen, calling for its mother.

The loud lamb at Voe was originally recorded for my project 'Listening to Shetland Wool' launched at Shetland Wool Week, 2015.

You are welcome to download this recording of the lamb for use in the forthcoming Instant Orchestra rendition of Handel's Messiah
7.45pm doors, 8.15pm performance
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford
FREE

Behold The Lamb Of God

This recording was made in Shetland at Burland Croft Trail at Trondra. The Burland Croft Trail is run by Tommy and Mary Isbister and is populated with Shetland breeds of livestock including Shetland ducks, Shetland cattle, and Shetland sheep. The road to Burra runs past the croft so you can also hear the passing cars, and a tunnel passes underneath this road which is of relevance to the recording.

You can hear a chicken in the foreground of the recording but in the distance is a lamb that has lost its mother through the tunnel. It spent an hour or so calling like this, its baas echoing off the tunnel. You can hear quite distantly the mother replying to her lost lamb. This recording felt especially apposite while thinking about field recordings to accompany the section of Handel's Messiah in which the sheepy reference in the text is 'All we like sheep have gone astray'.

You are welcome to download this recording of the lamb for use in the forthcoming Instant Orchestra rendition of Handel's Messiah
7.45pm doors, 8.15pm performance
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford
FREE

All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray

This is a mashup of several recordings combined to create a virtual chorus of lambs. 

One of the recordings was made in Shetland at Burland Croft Trail at Trondra; another was made at the Voe District and Agricultural show in Shetland; yet another was made at Sumburgh Head in Shetland and features some kind of fat meat sheep (not a Shetland) that was grazing there and looking for its mother. Finally, the bleat of an Estonian lamb on Joel and Julika Roos's farm - Jaani Talu - appears once or twice in the lamby chorus.

You are welcome to download this lamb chorus for use in the forthcoming Instant Orchestra rendition of Handel's Messiah
7.45pm doors, 8.15pm performance
Blackwell Hall, Weston Library, Bodleian, Oxford
FREE

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