Commissioned by Aerial Festival 2020: Sounds & Words in the Lake District.
www.aerialfestival.com

Sounds of Silence Commission

An evolving ambient and multi-layered soundscape experience using a map of the Lake District for reference.

See also video here: https://youtu.be/HlVhA0FxxWg

COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown has intensified our contact with our immediate surroundings and heightened our appreciation of the local. This piece is a meditation on the passing of time here, of the repetitions of our experience and of our overall lack of agency with how this space can change.

This is a jointly commissioned work with Emma Nuttall for word collaboration and shared ideas.

@EmNuttall
@digitaylor

Is This Just One Day?

Dissonances

ET132 An Etched Traumas release August 2021

https://archive.org/details/et132_tn_and_ds_triangulation

4 tracks that started life as two tracks shared between two artists DS and TN as an Exquisite corpse experiment. Completed during the 2nd & 3rd UK lockdown.

Exquisite corpse, also known as exquisite cadaver, is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.

Part 1 - joint track composition

Preliminary guidelines were established between the two artists via messenger conversation 
One project file for each of the two tracks
Person who has worked on it last uploads new version & deletes old version
Add one minute & only alter ½ of previous minute (can break rules to allow reverb and delay tails to last longer than the minute)
Must over lap with last last piece (this rule can be broken if it benefits the composition)
Can copy and paste at will from any previous piece (eg if you feel an aspect of the previous minute needs to last longer, or it benefits the composition to revisit an earlier moment)
Other recorded material permissible.
Artists to continue exchanging 3x until length of track is around 6 mins


Part 2 - independent mixing of tracks.

Two track compositions to be taken by each artist. Both artists to develop their own mixes with permission to add elements, modify/repeat elements as they wish.
No other rules.
Final length of mixed tracks to be between 3.5 mins and approx 7 mins.
4 final tracks as a result.

TN and _DS - Triangulation

The core of the track is a motif taken from The Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky Korsokov. 
Melipona are stingless bees commonly found in the The Brazilian Rainforest. With the bee being very probably our singular lifeline to a future existence on this planet.

Thanks to Greenpeace / DJ's for Climate Action for the use of their Climate Action Pack field recordings as part of the production for this track.

https://www.worldbeeday.org/en/about/the-importance-of-bees.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melipona
https://www.djs4ca.com/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stingless_bee_3,_f,_face,_peru_2014-07-30-13.12.18_ZS_PMax_(15835671131).jpg

Dissonance - Melipones

Sunset, spring birdsong.
Stereo field audio recording from remote streaming box.
Ogg file streamed using VLC media player.
Low end rumble and noise filtered.

Woodland Birdsong 6.30pm 16th March 2021 (Processed)

Heavy rainfall.
Recorded via streambox located in woodland. Sample recorded live via network stream to Audacity.

Rain Evening 28 03 21 unedited

From the EP - Triangulations.

Produced in collaboration with @taylornuttall and released by @etchedtraumas

read about the production process, download the EP and artwork here: archive.org/details/et132_tn_and_ds_triangulation

Triangulations

Download

_DS - Exquisite Corpse 2 _DS Last Train mix

From the EP - Triangulations. 

Produced in collaboration with @taylornuttall and released by @etchedtraumas

read about the production process, download the EP and artwork here: https://archive.org/details/et132_tn_and_ds_triangulation

_DS - Exquisite Corpse 1 _DS Northern Gas mix

Dawn Chorus 6.15am 11th April 2021
Undedited recording using Streambox, locusonus.org server and Audacity software.

dawn chorus 06_15am 11_04_21

Evening Birdsong 8 45pm April 21st 2021
Thorney How, Grasmere, UK.
https://www.thorneyhow.co.uk
Undedited recording using Streambox, locusonus.org server and Audacity software.

Evening Birdsong 8 45pm April 21st 2021

This is the 3rd of my Dissonance tracks
(Dissonance - Music. - a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of unrest and needing completion. - an unresolved, discordant chord or interval.)
This track uses a lot of different percussive and foley sources with staccato mono syllable lyrics with little or no meaning. Enjoy.

Dissonance - Tu Ha

Section 1 F major 90bpm
Grasmere

Part of a commisioned work for Sounds of Silence
Commissioned by Aerial Festival 2020: Sounds & Words in the Lake District.
www.aerialfestival.com

Close your eyes, we stand atop Seat Sandal.
Proud in it's own outline.
Silences surrounds this barren place.
A treeless space.
Grisedale tarn rippled as if beaten pewter.
Sharpen your senses.
Find the motion in this hush;
...the running of the water, the whistle of wind
And as you begin to notice,
Time stops

Audio recordings, music & composition - Taylor Nuttall
Words - Emma Nuttall
Image - Taylor Nuttall
September 2020

Section 1 - Grasmere

Section 2 F _ C Major 90bpm
Langdale

Part of a commisioned work for Sounds of Silence
Commissioned by Aerial Festival 2020: Sounds & Words in the Lake District.
www.aerialfestival.com

The Langdale land cracked open: 
Mines on the southern slopes of Wetherlam.
Vein into the mountains.
Trickling copper.
Leaving a breakneck of slate and boulders.
A legacy echoes in cathedral quarries.

Audio recordings. music & composition - Taylor Nuttall
Words - Emma Nuttall
September 2020

Image courtesy of Tony West
Skylark recording - Creative Commons - https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/

Section 2 - Langdale

Section 3 - F major - D minor - 110bpm
Scafell

Part of a commisioned work for Sounds of Silence
Commissioned by Aerial Festival 2020: Sounds & Words in the Lake District.
www.aerialfestival.com

The air is damp and chill today.
Smudged dark clouds, 
obscure the peaks of Great Gable. 
Cloak the grey slabs of Scafell Pike

Can you imagine the rain running down your cheek?
Does it soak your coat?
Does it weigh?
Does it shiver?
Does it wash everything away?
Can you imagine the rain running down your cheek?
Does it wash everything away?

Audio recordings, music & composition - Taylor Nuttall
Words - Emma Nuttall
Image - Taylor Nuttall
September 2020

Section 3  - Scafell

Section 4 - F Major 90bpm
Kentmere

Part of a commisioned work for Sounds of Silence
Commissioned by Aerial Festival 2020: Sounds & Words in the Lake District.
www.aerialfestival.com

Featured on Artful Ways - Bringing people together across Cumbria – 
a celebration of creativity, connection and place. Website launched 2021

https://artful-ways-cumbria.com/portfolio/emma-taylor-nuttall/

Did you ever learn to test the wind?
Stand on the ledge of the dam at Kentmere Reservoir, 
then lean out,
right out, 
over the dam,
into nothingness?

The wind roars but if it stops you fall. 
I can teach you how
to dice with the elements,
to stand in a place of origins.
Deep in the valley, at the source.

Audio recordings. music & composition - Taylor Nuttall
Words - Emma Nuttall
Image - Taylor Nuttall
September 2020

Section 4 - Kentmere

Commissioned by Aerial Festival 2020: Sounds & Words in the Lake District.
www.aerialfestival.com

Sounds of Silence Commission

Is This Just One Day? is an evolving ambient and multi-layered soundscape experience of a journey through the Lake District. The piece picks out locations around the Lake District, which have particular value to the authors. From these areas, field recordings from the landscape were taken and put to music to form a collection of sonic verses and words totaling 30 minutes. 

This piece is a meditation on the passing of time across in the Lake District, of the repetitions of our experience and of our overall lack of agency with how this space can change.

Music & composition - Taylor Nuttall
Words & video editing - Emma Nuttall
Images except below - Taylor Nuttall
Images courtesy of Andrew Locking (Skiddaw) & Tony West (Langdale Pikes)
Audio recordings except below - Taylor Nuttall
Skylark recording - Creative Commons - https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/
Sheep recording - Creative Commons - https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/
September 2020

Emma Nuttall grew up in the Lake District. She is a creative writer, producing stories and experiences for multiple mediums including audio, augmented-reality, virtual-reality, interactive stories, location-based digital experiences and film. She is currently working toward completing her PhD, which focuses on narrative perspective in digital fiction.
 
Taylor Nuttall lives in the Lake District. Trained as a visual artist, he has exhibited widely with painting, installation, and digital media. CEO and Director for the arts organisation Folly 2001-2011. Recent creative work is exploring sound art and electronic music. He is currently Chair of Festival of Noise.

A shortened and remixed version - Transition 3 Part 1 - this track responds creatively during the COVID-19 lockdown. Field audio samples include various power tools  such as a sander and lawnmower. AI processing has been used  to model melody, some of this is with Max for Live, some with VCV Rack. The root melody is  based on the 5 note Close Encounters theme. Other found sampled noises have been derived from NASA 'Spooky Space Sounds'. One of the main observations during lockdown has been peoples preoccupations with homebuilding whilst  stuck at home. Contrasting with this has been an increased appetite for and  fascination with distant worlds and the opportunity of a new life in space.

Transition 3 - Radio Edit Part 1

The original recording that this track is derived from is from Newcastle Civic Centre Carillion Bells recorded on 1st December 1967. The tune is the well known traditional carol Silent Night. No other samples or instruments have been used. All sounds are various modifications and audio effects to samples from the original recording.

Notes:
Newcastle Civic Centre is the main administrative and ceremonial centre for Newcastle City Council. It was designed by the city architect, George Kenyon and completed in 1967. It was formally opened by HM King Olav V of Norway on 14 November 1968. It is a Grade II listed building.
The recordings were made by the BBC on 1st December 1967 and it was the first time the carillon bells were heard by the public. The bells are in the main tower of the civic centre and can occasionally be heard today.
A Carillon is a musical instrument typically housed in a bell tower of a church or municipal building. The instrument usually consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to produce a melody, or together to play a chord. A traditional manual carillon is played by striking a keyboard—the stick-like keys of which are called batons—with the fists, and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires connected to metal clappers which strike the bells.

See https://soundcloud.com/tynesidesounds

Image attribution: Stille Nacht - Franz Xaver Gruber, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Dissonance - Bells

No. 1 of 4 tracks that started life as two tracks shared between two artists DS and TN as an Exquisite Corpse experiment. Completed during 2nd & 3rd UK lockdown.

Tracks developed using Ableton Live.

With thanks to Dominic Smith
https://soundcloud.com/d-s_s-d

Released via Etched Traumas

Exquisite Corpse 1 - mix 1 - TN

No. 3 of 4 tracks that started life as two tracks shared between two artists DS and TN as an Exquisite Corpse experiment. Completed during 2nd & 3rd UK lockdown.

Tracks developed using Ableton Live.

With thanks to Dominic Smith
https://soundcloud.com/d-s_s-d

Released via Etched Traumas

Exquisite Corpse - mix2 - TN

Taylor Nuttall is a composer, artist and sound designer. Seeking to avoid specific genres, his work is often a hybrid of influences that  incorporates found sounds and seemingly disparate though often very personal content. The environment, sustainability and climate change are a constant underlying thematic.

‘Is This Just One Day’, a 30 minute evocative soundscape was produced after winning a commission for the Sounds of Silence program by Aerial Festival, launched in September 2020. Taylor has been involved in a number of collaborative projects most recently working with artist and curator Dominic Smith to produce ‘Triangulation’ an EP released by Etched Traumas in August 2021.

After working extensively in the arts for many years leading multimedia arts organisation Folly and as a founding director of Abandon Normal Devices Festival, Taylor is currently a board member for Full of Noises, a sound art and new music organisation based in a public park on Cumbria’s Furness Peninsula.

Having recently moved from the Lake District to Dumfries and Galloway Taylor Nuttall lives on a small holding near Castle Douglas with a small flock of sheep. 

Taylor Nuttall trained as a visual artist and has an early exhibition career with artworks featuring painting, print, sculpture, photography and installation. In the late 80’s and early 90’s he began to explore the potential of creativity using computer technologies. As well as exhibiting these works in traditional gallery spaces this led to a number of pieces being designed to be experienced online as virtual artworks. These virtual artworks also began to explore the use of sound. Taylor is now working with sound, drawing upon composition and musical skills he learned from playing piano and classical guitar as well as re-learning more robustly about sound design, composition and music theory.

'Is this just One Day?' released September 2020, a new commision for Aerial Festival. https://aerialfestival.com/

Without Visual - April 2021 - https://www.instagram.com/surmise_collective/

EP - ‘Triangulation’ released by Etched Traumas -August 2021 - https://archive.org/details/et132_tn_and_ds_triangulation

Tracks played on:
BBC Radio Introducing - BBC Radio Cumbria
Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Cumbria
Space is the Place Radio Show - Cando FM - @SpaceisthePlac9
The Magic Window - MadWaspRadio - https://madwaspradio.com/
Hello Goodbye Radio Show - Resonance FM - https://hellogoodbyeshow.com/
Star & Shadow Radio https://soundcloud.com/tynesidesounds
Eagle Nest Radio - @eaglesmusicnest


@digitaylor

© 2022

Taylor Nuttall

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