Hilltop Harmonies...

Very exciting today - hearing the students' sounds, post-produced last week by Alex, Jane and Russ, and  mapped as a first sketch on SandPoint by Jackie this weekend... and here we are, listening, dancing, captivated by sound, trying not to be blown away! Russ beating the boundaries so we have an accurate trace of the area that will be used in March ready for Ben on the website.

And then an afternoon of mentoring sessions with the Media Diploma students: Jane on project planning and management, Russ on mapping music and creating the landscape, Jackie on traces  for mapmaking and video editing.

Looking forward to the Party in April...

Post production

The music post production event in action, deep in the heart of Alexs' music den.

Music maestro mastering the majestic mish mash of swirly sound......

Thanks to Alex for clear concise work and 100% focus. Soundlines becomes a step closer to becoming a hilltop reality.

soundlines music day

Up-helly-aaa!
Amazing, well done Worle and Locking, and all the Strata team, and the staff who supported us so well - we have come away with tons of really interesting sounds, rhythms and new compositions which are going to make the best Soundlines walk ever.
You just wait till you hear it.

Come rain or shine!

Just a few of the walks made by today's 20 or so walkers, who admirably braved the torrential rain to explore Soundlines on Sand Point. (They weren't really swimming in the sea - though it may have felt a bit like it at the end! I think the mapping of Sand Point is as variable as the tides!)
(Pictures and video documentation to follow later)

Soundlines at Interactive Avebury

Today Soundlines had it's first public testing, with mediascapes (and ipaqs and headphones available to borrow) as part of Avebury Interactive, on Avebury Open Day 2009.

It was a good success, with some lovely appreciative feedback.

First Soundwalk!

Walks in Lower Coleford after dusk...
Elemental rythms, melodies and ambients as first demos of the Soundlines experience. Wonderful! Soft beautiful imagery watching a shadowy figure, lit by PDA, twisting and turning exploring the sound of the place - each figure moves in its own special way, soft round lines, dashing zig zag marks, structured solid blocks.

Music for mediascape

Challenges! Today I think the music should not intrude, but sit lightly - or even float above. But it could drive you on, or make you turn, or turn with you: it could stop and wonder,  re-inforce a moment, and maybe linger long after.

Squiggles

I am excited by the idea of the trace unfolding as the music plays.

Sometimes I use a music workshop warm up called 'squiggles'. Players pair up, and both draw a squiggle. (- these look very similar to the traces.)

The idea is that you then play your friends' squiggle on your instrument - it's another way of writing music. Responses and interpretation vary a bit as you can imagine.

The traces of our significant journeys across ritual landscapes could be close to geomancy.

It also opens questions of how landscape affects our culture, our language, our vernacular architecture, our music..... perhaps less now than before : time to reconnect?

sand point - looking to the atlantic

If you were here, would you want music? or silence?