A short electroacoustic piece exploring the potential of found sound audio material through manipulation and transformation.
Inspired by slow motion imagery.

Slow Motion Replay

Field recordings captured at Ellenroad Steam Engine House, Newhey, Rochdale between March and July 2013 form a core part of the material utilised in the 'Industrial Revolutions' piece.
Recording locations included various places within the engine house such as the two large steam engines Victoria and Alexandra (pistons, drive-shafts, boiler valves, piping, ducts) the large fly wheel and around the peripheries of the space. Access was also granted to areas both below and above the engine/engine house space in addition to the boiler room and furnace enabling various perspectives to be explored.
A range of material was also captured in controlled environments and included sources such as a bike, metal and wooden tools (hammers, bars, screwdrivers) as well as material such as nails, a metal sheet, a gong, metal mesh, screws, a plank of wood, a large cooking pot, springs and rope.
This material has been categorised, processed, manipulated and transformed to build a conceptual electroacoustic music piece that explores historical significance, power, energy, change and human ingenuity. 

Industrial Revolutions

Sound material utilised in the piece ‘Child’s Play’ was captured mainly within
controlled environments and reinforced through field recordings made in
environments such as a children’s playground, a children’s playroom and in a
garden during a family gathering. Sound material captured in the controlled
environments included a jack-in-a-box, soft/squeaky toys, babies rattles,
bouncing balls, a toy phone, toy cars, a xylophone, a dolls house, a glockenspiel, electronic based toys such as a toy piano, a cot mobile, a toy bus, a drum, a toy phone, several soft toys and an interactive storybook. 

Child's Play

A field recording made at a site along the River Medlock just beyond a small waterfall and weir where the water has eroded rock to continue it's path into Manchester city centre.

Water Has The Power To Melt Rock

An acousmatic work exploring processed and manipulated field recordings. 

Beyond the Back Door

A pre-master and release instrumental mix preview of forth coming material for the Perpetual Prism sampler.

Barricade (Instrumental Demo)

A short field recording captured within the Lenagan Library stairwell in the Martin Harris Centre at the University of Manchester. 

The piece is an exploration of reverb and spatial characteristics of specific places and how footsteps in the environment become more and more immersed and regress into the reverberant ether.

Growth of Reverb

Etude Drop (Liquid) Collisions was composed as a study and exploration of captured water/water droplet audio compositional content. 
The aim was to create transformed material that could be layered and combined for compositional purposes, enabling interesting arrangements, relationships and structures to develop and form both through and within the source material. 

The piece is inspired by the theme of time and in particular Simon Emmerson’s concept of the changing now. An important aspect of the piece is how this relationship influences, as Emmerson states, “the listening experience through our apprehension of the present and its apparent trajectory within an immediately perceived environment. What happened an instant ago may influence what I am hearing now.” Within the structure and framework of the Etude Drop (Liquid) Collisions piece this concept relates to both the way water droplets interact with various masses of water and also how the material interacts and the relationships therein form.
A study and exploration of captured water/water droplet collisional content to create transformational material for compositional purposes.

Étude Drop (Liquid) Collisions

A study of field recordings captured at Manchester City football matches. 

The piece explores the potential of processed field recordings and spatial concepts through physical characteristics of crowds, stadium acoustics and proximity whilst also considering mass and density on both a spectral and dimensional level. 

Material for the piece was captured around the stadium including on the pitch-side near the tunnel and corner flag as well as high up in the Colin Bell Stand Level 3 and behind the goal in the South Stand Level 2.

This material was then arranged, transformed, processed and manipulated through various techniques and processes in an attempt to compose a creative sonic interpretation.

Étude Ebb & Flow

Craig Burgess is a Lecturer, Sound Designer, Electroacoustic Composer, Sound Engineer & Sonic Artist based in Manchester, England.

Perpetual Prism

Popular tracks