Portfolio:
Lamenting (2011) 5.1
Lamenting is inspired by the ancient female spirit know as the Bean Sidhe (Banshee) common in ancient Irish mythical tales. She is a wailing woman and her mourning call could be heard when a person was about to die. Depending on where the story was being told in Ireland, it was believed that her wail was so sharp that it would shatter glass or else it could be heard as a low pleasant singing. Traditionally in Ireland when someone died the women would lament (weep, wail) at the funeral. The sound sources for this piece are taken from recordings of voice and banjo in the studio. The sounds of the banjo are explored using extended techniques such as bowing the strings and rubbing the neck of the banjo. The raw sound of the wood on the banjo is left as natural as possible at the beginning so the audience has something to ‘grab’ onto. 5.1 spatialisation creates an immersive sound environment where textures and rhythms represent the movement of spirits throughout, the coming of death and the mourning of those that have passed. Have a listen here!
192 (2011) Stereo
'192' explores the city sounds that we choose to ignore on a daily basis. Recordings for this piece were taken from the many bus trips that I have taken from Stockport to Picaddilly Gardens and The University of Manchester. Since moving to Manchester, my reliance on public transport has introduced me to a whole new soundworld, one in which you can choose to ignore with an MP3 player. I decided to really study and embrace this environment, becoming more and more aware of the multiple layers of this soundscape and perhaps embrace this 'noise pollution' that commuters ignore. This piece reflects the rhythms, tones, atmosphere of the '192'. Have a listen here!
All Along the Bell Tower (2012) 5.1
This piece investigates the illusion of the internal and external sound world of a church/cathedral space and also the sound world within those sounds. The church building is treated as a sound object, which is deconstructed exposing the multiple layers within. Space is also explored, both intimate/internal and distant. The reverberant acoustic qualities of this sonic environment are examined while also focusing on the smaller, microscopic elements. The aim of the piece is to create an illusion that connects the listener to an environment that one is perhaps very familiar with. It is a spiritual journey created to make the listener aware of the acoustic properties contained within this huge reverberant space, a space that has dominated our landscape for centuries. (Candles were recorded with the help of Irma Catalina Alvarez). Have a listen here!
OZ (2012) 5.1
In January 2012 I traveled to Brisbane to visit my parents, to the suburb of Arana Hills, North of the city, where I experienced a whole new soundworld. The birdsong, crickets and frogs presented a new sonic experience. Dawn and dusk presented more excitement in the parks and trees as the animals and birds competed against one another in order to be heard. The unique sounds and melodies of the Bell Bird and the Pied Butcherbird amazed me compared with the harsher calls of the Cockatoo and the Kookaburra. I was a tourist for three weeks and all I had to do was listen.
The field recordings are from the parks around my parents’ house, the suburbs of Brisbane, and further up the coast to Rainbow Beach, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island and the Eco resort of Lady Elliott Island in the Great Barrier Reef. In the parks in Arana Hills I was amazed at how nature and man could live together. Even though the parks were busy with people, wildlife was plentiful, evident by the sounds. I became conscious of how much destruction of wildlife occurs around the world as humans intervene in natural habitats, and animals are forced to find an alternative home. This transforms the soundscape of an area.
This piece is an investigation into the natural soundscapes of these places, an exploration of their geophony (wind, rain, water) and biophony (sounds of plants and animals). It also raises the issue of the impact of human sound, (anthropophony) on these soundscapes and how it can take over and mask natural sound.
I would like to thank Callum Wheeler for playing the didgeridoo. Have a listen here!
The Thing About Listening Is...... (2013) 10-Channel
The idea for this piece began in July 2012 when I attended the Global Composition Conference in Dieburg, Germany. I went on a soundwalk with Hildegard Westerkamp and came away feeling very lucky to know and understand what a soundwalk was. I decided to organise a soundwalk in my hometown. The idea was to teach people a little about soundwalking and how to listen to their environment. I took about 15 people on this 50 minute walk and the group ranged from about 3-65 years of age. My interaction with the local community and the creation of the soundwalk had a significance influence on the locations of my recordings and the compositional process. The Thing about listening is.... brings together thoughts, experiences, stories and sounds that were discussed and recorded as a result of the soundwalk. I would like to thank Rosemary Porter and Brian Johnson for allowing me to record our conversation about listening and using it in the piece. Have a listen here!
A Bit Closer to Home (2014) 10-Channel
This piece explores the idea of sound romances (1) and aural memories that connect us to a specific time and place in our lives. Changing soundscapes can tell us a lot about the history of a place and how it has changed over time. The sounds may have changed due to industrial engineering and economic developments. As composers we can create virtual soundscapes that can document the sounds of the past and recreate it. We can use the medium of Electroacoustic music to express the importance of changing soundscapes through the creative use of field recordings and spoken word. It is interesting to see what sounds people remember from their past. Why do they remember certain sounds more than others? Is it because they are disturbing? Is it because certain sounds are associated with a particular feeling from a specific time and place?
This composition brings together elements of soundscape composition, spoken word and electroacoustic techniques within an 8-channel speaker set-up.
Spoken Word: Tiernan Martin
(1) Sound Romances: Any past or disappearing sound remembered nostalgically, particularly when idealised or otherwise given special importance. Whereas new sounds are often experienced as sound phobias, old or past sounds are often elevated to the category of sound romances in memory. Have a listen here!
Beyond the Lakes (2016) Stereo, Commissioned by The Octopus Collective as part of the Full of Noises Festival, 2015 with funding from the Women Make Music, PRS for Music Foundation.
Beyond the Lakes explores the inner sonic qualities and hidden sounds masked beneath the industrial soundscape of Workington, Cumbria. A new environment brings sounds that invade our listening space because they are new and unfamiliar such as the echoing screech of seagulls in Portland Square, a small cobbled square surrounded by concrete dwellings. The mourning call of the seagull and other birds also presents interesting sonic characteristics, almost a human-like cry.
This piece reflects a past soundscape that may have once witnessed historic events that occurred around Workington Hall, such as the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots as she fled from Scotland in 1568. This virtual soundworld weaves amongst present day soundscape recordings; the song of the blackbird, a family of ducks amongst the reeds and a dog frolicking in the river that flows around the hall.
While often some soundscape compositions highlight environmental concerns, for this work I chose to focus on the masked sonic worlds that exist in Workington. Have a listen here!
NightEscape (2018) 8-Channel
NightEscape is the first in a series of works that will explore the soundscape that surrounds Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida where I have attended residencies with composers Jonty Harrison and Natasha Barrett.
NightEscape explores a night-time soundscape using a field recording as the source material. Crickets dominate this field recording. I find the sound of crickets extremely relaxing and calming and their presence reinforces the fact that I am somewhere else, exploring and travelling because their sound to me is somehow exotic.
I have restricted myself to using one night-time recording, which facilitates the exploration of this recording in detail.
NightEscape was composed using a ring of 8 loudspeakers. The piece offers the listener time to immerse themselves in a meditative and calming soundscape, taking time out of busy schedules to pause, reflect and escape. This piece was composed at EMS, Stockholm, March 2018. NightEscape was released on the album Tides, 2021 by ISSTA (Irish Sound Science and Technology Association).
Sowing Seeds (2018) Stereo. Commissioned by Seed Studios and The Vonnegut Collective with funding from Arts Council England
As a composer one of the most rewarding activities is teaching people about soundscape composition. In my workshops participants learn about the soundscape and take part in field recording and composition activities. These workshops bring a variety of people together all with an eagerness to learn something new while sharing their own creative experiences. Their own experiences of their sonic environment and connections to place offer the composer a fresh insight into a new place, such as Trafford, Manchester.
This piece is a celebration of cultural diversity, a showcase of creative ideas through the exploration of our sonic environment. The recordings gathered from these activities have been used to create a new soundscape, one in which is inspired by the creative explorations of the participants during the workshops.
I would like to thank all of the participants who attended the workshops and the staff at Seed Studios for making this happen. I would also like to thank Gemma Bass and Gary Farr for inviting me to collaborate with them on this project.
Have a listen here!
Frogland (2019) 24 Channel. Commissioned by Greenwich University with funding from the (HEIF) Higher Education Innovation Fund. A collaboration between myself, Paula Fairfield, Andrew Knight-Hill and L Acoustics.
Travelling to different places introduces us to new exotic soundscapes often dominated by pulsing rhythmic and static musical patterns. Frogland explores night-time field recordings from Florida and Brisbane which are dominated by crickets and frogs. A variety of sound design tools have been used to create this work such as spectral analysis and transformation and granular processing. The composition is also spatialised in 8-channel creating a hyper-real immersive soundscape. This is the 2nd piece in a series of soundscape works that explores night time sonic environments. Francis Dhomont’s fantastic work Signé Dionysos 1983-91 was of particular inspiration to me while writing this piece. I would like to thank composer Rick Nance for allowing me to use some of his Frog recordings for this piece. This work has been I would also like to thank Dr. Andrew Hill for organising this project. Have a listen here!
We discuss our compositions here: Compositional Approaches: Reflections on Diverse Practices - Fairfield, Martin, Knight-Hill
Nygamla for Live Nyckelharpa and Tape, 2020 (Stereo). Commissioned by Dr. Robert Bentall, Leeds College of Music with funding from Arts Council England, 2019-2020
This was a commission to create a new electroacoustic piece which explores the Swedish Nyckelharpa instrument. Nygamla (reinvention) is a piece for live Nyckelharpa and fixed electroacoustic part. There are two sound sources used to create the electroacoustic part. The first are generated from recordings of Rob Bentall performing and demonstrating extended techniques on the Nyckelharpa. The second are recordings from the Buchla 200 Modular Synthesiser recorded at EMS (Elektronmusik Studion), Stockholm, September 2019. The Nyckleharpa is taken out of its traditional folk tradition and placed within a new sonic space where its identity has been masked and processed into a variety of new textures. It also has the opportunity to perform with the Buchla. For the composer this piece is an exploration of working with new sound matierals. The performer has the option to rebel against this new sonic world or join it, or both! Have a listen here!
Breaking the Chains, 2021, (Stereo). Commissioned by the University of Southampton with funding from the Alan Turing Institute
From December 2019 - January 2021 I was a Research Fellow on Jazz as Social Machine project which was led by Dr. Tom Irvine at the University of Southampton. The project was funded by the Alan Turing Institute. There were two creative outputs for the project: 1) An interactive multimedia sound and game environment built in Unity Game Engine, 2) Breaking the Chains, an electroacoustic work.
Breaking the Chains explores narratives and oral history archives that explore the subjects of AI and Jazz. The listener is taken on a journey through history where they get to meet some of the most important figures in computer engineering. They also get to hear the stories from some of the most important jazz improvisers.
Archival sources used within the work include:
Oral History of British Science archives at the British Library
Alan Lomax Oral History recordings such as New Orleans Jazz Interviews 1949
David Niven Jazz Archives
Hogan Jazz Archive
Other sound sources include AI generated Jazz Improvisations. These are taken from the BebopNet: Deep Neural Models for Personalized Jazz Improvisations project.
Whispers of the Past, 2021 (Stereo). Commissioned by Electric Medway and Sparked Echo for the Electric Medway Festival 2021
"Created by Sonic Palimpsest, the geolocated sound walk ‘Whispers of the Past’ explores and presents stories from archives from men and women who worked at the Chatham Dockyard before it became a museum. We hear personal accounts, moving stories, descriptions, memories and anecdotes that become vivid and alive again through the voices of those who experienced them. Have a listen here!
Parque Urbano El Bosque to Curiñanco Beach, 2021, (Binaural), Commissioned by the Soundlapse Project, Chile
This piece explores field recordings from the Soundlapse project. I chose to explore the wetland soundscapes of two different locations around the city of Valdivia, Chile: Parque Urbano El Bosque and Curiñanco Beach. The piece reflects an imagined journey through these environments as I have never visited them in person. I would like to thank Felipe Otondo for inviting me to compose a work for this project. This piece was released on Soundlapse|Various Artist on the Gruenrekorder label.
***Please listen with headphones as this is a binaural mix.
Lamenting is inspired by the ancient female spirit know as the Bean Sidhe (Banshee) common in ancient Irish mythical tales. She is a wailing woman and her mourning call could be heard when a person was about to die. Depending on where the story was being told in Ireland, it was believed that her wail was so sharp that it would shatter glass or else it could be heard as a low pleasant singing. Traditionally in Ireland when someone died the women would lament (weep, wail) at the funeral. The sound sources for this piece are taken from recordings of voice and banjo in the studio. The sounds of the banjo are explored using extended techniques such as bowing the strings and rubbing the neck of the banjo. The raw sound of the wood on the banjo is left as natural as possible at the beginning so the audience has something to ‘grab’ onto. 5.1 spatialisation creates an immersive sound environment where textures and rhythms represent the movement of spirits throughout, the coming of death and the mourning of those that have passed. Have a listen here!
192 (2011) Stereo
'192' explores the city sounds that we choose to ignore on a daily basis. Recordings for this piece were taken from the many bus trips that I have taken from Stockport to Picaddilly Gardens and The University of Manchester. Since moving to Manchester, my reliance on public transport has introduced me to a whole new soundworld, one in which you can choose to ignore with an MP3 player. I decided to really study and embrace this environment, becoming more and more aware of the multiple layers of this soundscape and perhaps embrace this 'noise pollution' that commuters ignore. This piece reflects the rhythms, tones, atmosphere of the '192'. Have a listen here!
All Along the Bell Tower (2012) 5.1
This piece investigates the illusion of the internal and external sound world of a church/cathedral space and also the sound world within those sounds. The church building is treated as a sound object, which is deconstructed exposing the multiple layers within. Space is also explored, both intimate/internal and distant. The reverberant acoustic qualities of this sonic environment are examined while also focusing on the smaller, microscopic elements. The aim of the piece is to create an illusion that connects the listener to an environment that one is perhaps very familiar with. It is a spiritual journey created to make the listener aware of the acoustic properties contained within this huge reverberant space, a space that has dominated our landscape for centuries. (Candles were recorded with the help of Irma Catalina Alvarez). Have a listen here!
OZ (2012) 5.1
In January 2012 I traveled to Brisbane to visit my parents, to the suburb of Arana Hills, North of the city, where I experienced a whole new soundworld. The birdsong, crickets and frogs presented a new sonic experience. Dawn and dusk presented more excitement in the parks and trees as the animals and birds competed against one another in order to be heard. The unique sounds and melodies of the Bell Bird and the Pied Butcherbird amazed me compared with the harsher calls of the Cockatoo and the Kookaburra. I was a tourist for three weeks and all I had to do was listen.
The field recordings are from the parks around my parents’ house, the suburbs of Brisbane, and further up the coast to Rainbow Beach, Hervey Bay, Fraser Island and the Eco resort of Lady Elliott Island in the Great Barrier Reef. In the parks in Arana Hills I was amazed at how nature and man could live together. Even though the parks were busy with people, wildlife was plentiful, evident by the sounds. I became conscious of how much destruction of wildlife occurs around the world as humans intervene in natural habitats, and animals are forced to find an alternative home. This transforms the soundscape of an area.
This piece is an investigation into the natural soundscapes of these places, an exploration of their geophony (wind, rain, water) and biophony (sounds of plants and animals). It also raises the issue of the impact of human sound, (anthropophony) on these soundscapes and how it can take over and mask natural sound.
I would like to thank Callum Wheeler for playing the didgeridoo. Have a listen here!
The Thing About Listening Is...... (2013) 10-Channel
The idea for this piece began in July 2012 when I attended the Global Composition Conference in Dieburg, Germany. I went on a soundwalk with Hildegard Westerkamp and came away feeling very lucky to know and understand what a soundwalk was. I decided to organise a soundwalk in my hometown. The idea was to teach people a little about soundwalking and how to listen to their environment. I took about 15 people on this 50 minute walk and the group ranged from about 3-65 years of age. My interaction with the local community and the creation of the soundwalk had a significance influence on the locations of my recordings and the compositional process. The Thing about listening is.... brings together thoughts, experiences, stories and sounds that were discussed and recorded as a result of the soundwalk. I would like to thank Rosemary Porter and Brian Johnson for allowing me to record our conversation about listening and using it in the piece. Have a listen here!
A Bit Closer to Home (2014) 10-Channel
This piece explores the idea of sound romances (1) and aural memories that connect us to a specific time and place in our lives. Changing soundscapes can tell us a lot about the history of a place and how it has changed over time. The sounds may have changed due to industrial engineering and economic developments. As composers we can create virtual soundscapes that can document the sounds of the past and recreate it. We can use the medium of Electroacoustic music to express the importance of changing soundscapes through the creative use of field recordings and spoken word. It is interesting to see what sounds people remember from their past. Why do they remember certain sounds more than others? Is it because they are disturbing? Is it because certain sounds are associated with a particular feeling from a specific time and place?
This composition brings together elements of soundscape composition, spoken word and electroacoustic techniques within an 8-channel speaker set-up.
Spoken Word: Tiernan Martin
(1) Sound Romances: Any past or disappearing sound remembered nostalgically, particularly when idealised or otherwise given special importance. Whereas new sounds are often experienced as sound phobias, old or past sounds are often elevated to the category of sound romances in memory. Have a listen here!
Beyond the Lakes (2016) Stereo, Commissioned by The Octopus Collective as part of the Full of Noises Festival, 2015 with funding from the Women Make Music, PRS for Music Foundation.
Beyond the Lakes explores the inner sonic qualities and hidden sounds masked beneath the industrial soundscape of Workington, Cumbria. A new environment brings sounds that invade our listening space because they are new and unfamiliar such as the echoing screech of seagulls in Portland Square, a small cobbled square surrounded by concrete dwellings. The mourning call of the seagull and other birds also presents interesting sonic characteristics, almost a human-like cry.
This piece reflects a past soundscape that may have once witnessed historic events that occurred around Workington Hall, such as the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots as she fled from Scotland in 1568. This virtual soundworld weaves amongst present day soundscape recordings; the song of the blackbird, a family of ducks amongst the reeds and a dog frolicking in the river that flows around the hall.
While often some soundscape compositions highlight environmental concerns, for this work I chose to focus on the masked sonic worlds that exist in Workington. Have a listen here!
NightEscape (2018) 8-Channel
NightEscape is the first in a series of works that will explore the soundscape that surrounds Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida where I have attended residencies with composers Jonty Harrison and Natasha Barrett.
NightEscape explores a night-time soundscape using a field recording as the source material. Crickets dominate this field recording. I find the sound of crickets extremely relaxing and calming and their presence reinforces the fact that I am somewhere else, exploring and travelling because their sound to me is somehow exotic.
I have restricted myself to using one night-time recording, which facilitates the exploration of this recording in detail.
NightEscape was composed using a ring of 8 loudspeakers. The piece offers the listener time to immerse themselves in a meditative and calming soundscape, taking time out of busy schedules to pause, reflect and escape. This piece was composed at EMS, Stockholm, March 2018. NightEscape was released on the album Tides, 2021 by ISSTA (Irish Sound Science and Technology Association).
Sowing Seeds (2018) Stereo. Commissioned by Seed Studios and The Vonnegut Collective with funding from Arts Council England
As a composer one of the most rewarding activities is teaching people about soundscape composition. In my workshops participants learn about the soundscape and take part in field recording and composition activities. These workshops bring a variety of people together all with an eagerness to learn something new while sharing their own creative experiences. Their own experiences of their sonic environment and connections to place offer the composer a fresh insight into a new place, such as Trafford, Manchester.
This piece is a celebration of cultural diversity, a showcase of creative ideas through the exploration of our sonic environment. The recordings gathered from these activities have been used to create a new soundscape, one in which is inspired by the creative explorations of the participants during the workshops.
I would like to thank all of the participants who attended the workshops and the staff at Seed Studios for making this happen. I would also like to thank Gemma Bass and Gary Farr for inviting me to collaborate with them on this project.
Have a listen here!
Frogland (2019) 24 Channel. Commissioned by Greenwich University with funding from the (HEIF) Higher Education Innovation Fund. A collaboration between myself, Paula Fairfield, Andrew Knight-Hill and L Acoustics.
Travelling to different places introduces us to new exotic soundscapes often dominated by pulsing rhythmic and static musical patterns. Frogland explores night-time field recordings from Florida and Brisbane which are dominated by crickets and frogs. A variety of sound design tools have been used to create this work such as spectral analysis and transformation and granular processing. The composition is also spatialised in 8-channel creating a hyper-real immersive soundscape. This is the 2nd piece in a series of soundscape works that explores night time sonic environments. Francis Dhomont’s fantastic work Signé Dionysos 1983-91 was of particular inspiration to me while writing this piece. I would like to thank composer Rick Nance for allowing me to use some of his Frog recordings for this piece. This work has been I would also like to thank Dr. Andrew Hill for organising this project. Have a listen here!
We discuss our compositions here: Compositional Approaches: Reflections on Diverse Practices - Fairfield, Martin, Knight-Hill
Nygamla for Live Nyckelharpa and Tape, 2020 (Stereo). Commissioned by Dr. Robert Bentall, Leeds College of Music with funding from Arts Council England, 2019-2020
This was a commission to create a new electroacoustic piece which explores the Swedish Nyckelharpa instrument. Nygamla (reinvention) is a piece for live Nyckelharpa and fixed electroacoustic part. There are two sound sources used to create the electroacoustic part. The first are generated from recordings of Rob Bentall performing and demonstrating extended techniques on the Nyckelharpa. The second are recordings from the Buchla 200 Modular Synthesiser recorded at EMS (Elektronmusik Studion), Stockholm, September 2019. The Nyckleharpa is taken out of its traditional folk tradition and placed within a new sonic space where its identity has been masked and processed into a variety of new textures. It also has the opportunity to perform with the Buchla. For the composer this piece is an exploration of working with new sound matierals. The performer has the option to rebel against this new sonic world or join it, or both! Have a listen here!
Breaking the Chains, 2021, (Stereo). Commissioned by the University of Southampton with funding from the Alan Turing Institute
From December 2019 - January 2021 I was a Research Fellow on Jazz as Social Machine project which was led by Dr. Tom Irvine at the University of Southampton. The project was funded by the Alan Turing Institute. There were two creative outputs for the project: 1) An interactive multimedia sound and game environment built in Unity Game Engine, 2) Breaking the Chains, an electroacoustic work.
Breaking the Chains explores narratives and oral history archives that explore the subjects of AI and Jazz. The listener is taken on a journey through history where they get to meet some of the most important figures in computer engineering. They also get to hear the stories from some of the most important jazz improvisers.
Archival sources used within the work include:
Oral History of British Science archives at the British Library
Alan Lomax Oral History recordings such as New Orleans Jazz Interviews 1949
David Niven Jazz Archives
Hogan Jazz Archive
Other sound sources include AI generated Jazz Improvisations. These are taken from the BebopNet: Deep Neural Models for Personalized Jazz Improvisations project.
Whispers of the Past, 2021 (Stereo). Commissioned by Electric Medway and Sparked Echo for the Electric Medway Festival 2021
"Created by Sonic Palimpsest, the geolocated sound walk ‘Whispers of the Past’ explores and presents stories from archives from men and women who worked at the Chatham Dockyard before it became a museum. We hear personal accounts, moving stories, descriptions, memories and anecdotes that become vivid and alive again through the voices of those who experienced them. Have a listen here!
Parque Urbano El Bosque to Curiñanco Beach, 2021, (Binaural), Commissioned by the Soundlapse Project, Chile
This piece explores field recordings from the Soundlapse project. I chose to explore the wetland soundscapes of two different locations around the city of Valdivia, Chile: Parque Urbano El Bosque and Curiñanco Beach. The piece reflects an imagined journey through these environments as I have never visited them in person. I would like to thank Felipe Otondo for inviting me to compose a work for this project. This piece was released on Soundlapse|Various Artist on the Gruenrekorder label.
***Please listen with headphones as this is a binaural mix.
Electronic/Ambient:
If I (Rainmakers, Piano, Voice)
Feadog (Tin Whistle, Voice)
Forget me not (Voice)
Agarbatti (Synths, Voice, Field Recordings)
Sinking Piano (Piano, Voice, Field Recordings)
It will come (Guitar, Voice)
Lament (Voice)
Feadog (Tin Whistle, Voice)
Forget me not (Voice)
Agarbatti (Synths, Voice, Field Recordings)
Sinking Piano (Piano, Voice, Field Recordings)
It will come (Guitar, Voice)
Lament (Voice)
