Still Voices
2005
fixed medium - stereo
6’22”
Commissioned by:
Gordon Forum for the Arts (funded by Aberdeenshire Council/Scottish Arts Council)
Awards:
Finalist, Sounds Electric Electroacoustic Music Competition, Ireland, 2007
Honourable Mention, Musica Nova, Czech Republic, 2007
Honourable Mention, Destellos Competition, Argentina, 2009
Still Voices is part of a larger project called Gordon Soundscape, which is an attempt to map the sonic diversity of the former Gordon District in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The project also comprises the acousmatic/soundscape concert piece Fields of Silence, the Gordon Soundscape Sound Map and the sound documentary/installation Resound.
I have become fascinated by the potential power that I have as a composer working with technology and fixed media to conserve sounds which will soon no longer exist. Workers at the Glendronach Distillery in North-East Scotland were told in 2004 that the plant was to move from coal-fired processes to a more ecological method of heating. They began to realise that the sounds they had become used to as part of their daily work – raking out the kilns, kiln doors closing, coal pouring from the back of delivery lorries – were soon to disappear for ever.
Originally, I had intended to make a few recordings of these “disappearing sounds” and use them in the sound documentary/installation part of the project. However, it became clear to me, during the visits I made to the distillery, that there were many more interesting sounds which were crying out to be used and so I decided to make an entire piece using sounds recorded from both inside and out, including rolling whisky barrels along the ground, grain milling machines and the Glendronach Burn which runs through the distillery grounds.
Still Voices appears on Scènes available from bandcamp
Still Voices also appears on…
Deep Wireless 6
Performances
2005
Nov 8 - Thainstone Auction Mart, Inverurie - discoveries xxxv
2006
Feb 4 - Reid Hall, University of Edinburgh - Soundings
Mar 3 - University of Manchester - MANTIS Festival
Mar 6 - Fuse-FM, Manchester, UK - MANTIS in Motion
Apr 1 & 2 - Neighborhood Unitarian Church, Pasadena - Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey
Apr 17 - Foldover, WOBC 91.5 FM, Oberlin, Ohio, USA - Foldover
May 27 - University of Sheffield - Sound Junction
Jun 1 - Radio Libertaire Epsilonia – Electron Libres
Aug 22 – 26 - Lanus, Argentina - Sonoimagenes
Nov 7 - Duff House, Banff - soundfestival
Dec 8 - Frederick Loewe Theatre, New York
2007
Apr 19 - Video in Studios, Vancouver, Canada - Signal and Noise
Nov 22 - Black Box Theatre, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland - Sounds Electric
2008
Apr 12 - University of Florida, Gainesville, USA - 17th Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival - review - Computer Music Journal
Sep 13 - Fylkingen, Sweden - SEAMS
Nov 2 - Left Bank, Tarland - soundfestival - review - soundfestival
Dec 10 - Studio Hydro-Québec, Monument Nationale, Montréal, Canada - Akousma 5
2009
Feb 19 - Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast - SARC/5 Composers/5 Days
May 9 - Aichi Art Theater, Nagoya, Japan - Japanese Society of Electronic Music/Musicological Society of Japan Electroacoustic Festival
May 12 - University of Hull, Scarborough
May 29 - Maison de la Culture, Bourges, France - Bourges Synthèse
Oct 10 - Centro Cultural Matucana, Santiago, Chile - IX Festival Internacional de Musica Electroacustica de Santiago Ai-Maako
Oct 21 - Elgar Room, University of Birmingham - Minibeast
Nov 30 - KUNM Radio KUNM
2010
Sep 8 - Glendronach Whisky Distillery, Forgue - Wordfringe - review - New Words
Sep 10 - Woodend Barn, Banchory - Woodend Arts Association
2011
Feb 11 - Adam Smith College, Glenrothes
Feb 14 – 20 - Audiograft - Audiograft Jukebox
Apr 1 - Leeds College of Music - n.one9
May 4 - Atkinson Hall, University of California San Diego, USA - Music under the Influence of Computers
Autumn - Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA - Channel Noise V
Oct 25 - Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen - soundfestival
Nov 12 - Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh - Soundings
2012
Apr 20 - Ives Hall, Lewis University, Kansas City, USA - Lewis University Concert Series
May 4 - RCV Lille 99FM - El Réanimator
May 11 - SWR2, Germany - NOWJazz Magazin
May 12 - BR Bayern 2, Germany - Nachtsession
May 22 - CHRW 94.9FM, Canada - Beyond the Beyond
Sep 2 - WMUA FM 91.1, Amherst, USA - Martian Gardens
Dec 1 - Bramall Music Building, University of Birmingham - BEAST – 30th Anniversary Concert
2013
Jun 21 - Espace Senghor, Brussells - Musiques et Recherches
2014
29 Jan - PACE Building, De Montfort University - DMU
2015
Feb 19 - Reichel Hall, Bangor University - Pontio
Mar 6 - Bewerunge Room, Maynooth University, Ireland
Jul 4 - Phoenix Theatre, Leicester - Art & Sound Symposium
Nov 28 - MAC Valdivia, Chile - Relincha Festival
2016
Jan 18 - CKCU-FM 93.1, Ottawa, Canada - Acoustic Frontiers
Mar 23 - The Dome, Bramall Building, University of Birmingham BEAST
Sep 29 - WOBC 91.5FM - Foldover
Oct 3 - The Chapel, Haddo House - Haddo Arts Festival
2018
Mar 7 - The Venue - Leeds College of Music
Mar 9 - DINA, Sheffield Satellites
Aug 11 - South River, Canada - NAISA
2019
May 2-4 - The Dome, Bramall Concert Hall, University of Birmingham - BEASTFEaST