A slowly unfolding collaboration with Simon James which maps an area of the South coast near both of our homes, involving field recordings, interviews, still and moving images and liable to head in other, unexpected directions.
As part of Soundcamp’s Reveil, in May 2021, we broadcast live sounds in the dawn vicinity of the hotpipe, using a mix of geophones, hydrophones and in-air microphones.
“The hotpipe is the local name for the cooling water outflow pipe that extends into the English Channel from a spit that protects Southwick Ship Canal and houses the power station, water treatment plant, steelworks and cargo storage wharfs.”
In July, 2023, to Blast Theory to talk about the project, replaying a video from dawn in 2021, Simon leading listening sessions, me providing context from soundmaps and the audience asking great questions. The finale was a collective performance of Pauline Oliveros’ “Rock Piece” (1979) using pebbles from the shoreline
In August, 2023, “Flux and Phantoms” broadcast on FM, DAB and online as part of the Radiophrenia festival. One hour mix of field recordings with ‘phantom sounds’ to playback on another device:
Sheltered by a concrete harbour arm and a shingle and steel embankment built on sunken ships, Shoreham Port houses a sewage treatment works, a power station, a rock processing plant, a steel factory, wharves, lorry parks and burger vans: a backdrop for swimmers, nudists, cyclists, surfers, fishers and summer picnickers.
As they engage with the unprocessed field recordings from the zone around the canal lock, listeners are invited to use another device to simultaneously mix in “phantom frequencies” and recreate a phenomena encountered at the site: the appearance of enigmatic drones and tones at the edges of the acoustic atmosphere.”
