Dawn Chorus composition recorded at Low Way Farm and Parkend Woods, Holwick,  Middleton-in-Teesdale. I worked with a group of young people on a two day residential and Kerryanne Higgens, Engagement Officer for Tees-Swale Naturally Connected, to record the Dawn Chorus.We created a unique North Pennines flavoured Dawn Chorus full of unexpected Curlew and Oyster Catcher calls. These birds call relentlessly at this time of year so they were calling through night and into the early hours. There was a fantastic aurora borealis with really strong colours the evening before the first day of recording. I worked with a group of young people on a two day residential to record the Dawn Chorus. We created a unique North Pennines flavoured Dawn Chorus full of unexpected Curlew and Oyster Catcher calls. These birds call relentlessly at this time of year. 

This was timed to be as close as possible to World Dawn Chorus Day (5th May this year) - the time of year when the dawn chorus is at its fullest. Sun rise was at 4.30am so we woke up, carried out a sound walk and made a set of recordings at 4am.

Drop rigs were also left recording overnight. I created an AB recording set up with lyres and clippy mics inside a Rode blimp for wind protection.

This recording starts at night, it features sounds of the night like bats (recorded using bat detectors), hooting owls, an intense thunder storm and rain that eventually clears. The dawn chorus then gradually starts to build as more and birds wake and begin to sing.

Recording took place from 10th through to the 14th May 2024.

192k 32bit DawnChorus Composition

DawnChorus Composition 10-14th May 2024 Low Way Farm & Parkend Wood, Middleton-in-Teesdale

BreedingWaders recorded at Baldershead Reservoir and Hill Gill Farm, Baldersdale, North Pennines.
Features Curlew, Oyster Catcher, Lapwing, Redshank.

192k 32bit

Breeding Waders

Excerpt from hydrophone recording made on a pontoon off of Glenfield St., West End, Brisbane, Queensland Australia

The Brisbane River is the longest river in the south east region of Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay. Wikipedia
Length: 344 km
Source: Mount Stanley
Mouth: Moreton Bay
Country: Australia


HydrophoneRecording_TheBrisbaneRiver

Lake Algae

Naturecultures: Recording of Stingless Honey Bees (Meliponines)in
Silk Town, Hamchang, Cittaslow, South Korea. 20.10.2016
Part of Hybrid Cultures//Borderless Practice research visit to South Korea 2016.

Naturecultures: Stingless Honey Bees (Meliponines)

Listening to Bangija Yugi crafted by Lee Bongju at MMCA, Seoul, SK

Listening To Bangija Yugi_1

Bangija Yugi(crafted by Lee Bongju)Recorded at MMCA 서울관, SK
Shotgun Mic

Listening To Bangija Yugi_2

Listening To Bangija Yugi_3

Work In Progress composition featuring recordings made in South Korea during the Hybrid Cultures / Borderless Practice research visit 2016
Seoul // Hamchang // Jinhae

Recordings made with the following Mics // Sensors & Recorders:
DPA SMK4060 (stereo omni microphone kit)
Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic
Geophone
Coil Pick Ups (GuitarPickups)
Wifi demodulator
Hydrophones h2a-XLR * 2
Sound Devices 788t
Sound Devices 552

HybridCultures // Borderless Practice (WIP)

Data Nekyia
A Physical & Digital Night Sea-Journey
“In isolation, drift from edge to edge, rise and fall, data modulating on the wave, transforming with time, floating on the open oceans of the unconscious psyche”

1/ Introduction
C. G. Jung used the concept of Nekyia as an integral part of his analytical psychology: “Nekyia ... introversion of the conscious mind into the deeper layers of the unconscious psyche”.[1] For Jung, “the Nekyia is no aimless or destructive fall into the abyss, but a meaningful katabasis ... its object the restoration of the whole man”.[2]A dark night of the soul from which one emerges transformed and complete. Nekyia relates to the first step in the alchemical opus, “nigredo”, the blackening.
2/ Night Sea-Journey
Jung used the image of the Nekyia, of “the night journey on the sea”[3]
- “a descent into the dark, depths of the unconscious ... a journey to hell and‘death’”–emphasising that“thegreatarcofthenightseajourney comprises many lesser rhythms, lesser arcs on the same ‘primordial pattern.’”[4]
3/ Digital Media
Sensors measure the physical world - vibrating waves converted to quantifiable electrical impulses. Analog to Digital converters transform these physical pulses into digital ghosts. Having undergone this trans- formation any media can shape shift into any other form.
4/ Data Nekyia
This project presents a digital and physical Nekyia. A physical data buoy drifts through the night consumed by a vast ocean analogous to Jung’s Nekyia conceptualisation. Various sensors aboard the buoy measure water temperature / electrical conductance, acceleration (how the buoy is moving upon the waves), hydrophones above and below the water detect sound. Audio undergoes transformation to spectral data for transmission. These spectra and data are relayed via radio online to a computer. Here the data is sonified - i.e mapped to musically interesting values. In a final act of transmutation these sonifications are converted into audio and played back on loudspeakers in a gallery space.

References
[1] C . G. Jung, Analytical Psychology (London 1976) p. 41
[2] Quoted in D. R. Griffin, Archetypal Process (1990) p. 118
[3] C. G. Jung, Psychology of the Unconscious (London 1944) p. 131, p. 156, p. 220 
[4] J. Jacobi, Complex, Archetype, Symbol (London 1959) p. 187

microresonance