Bidwell Brook School

In October Chris Booth from Sound Art Radio and myself worked with the children of Bidwell Brook School at Dartington on a radio project about healthy eating. Much fun was had making healthy food, and the first show featuring the material was broadcast on 30 October. It can be heard here (about thirty minutes in) ...

This work has been supported by Health Watch Devon and is part of a series of programmes about young people and health on Sound Art Radio called "What the Health".

WTH! October 2015 by Soundart_Radio on Mixcloud

Soundcamp 2015 with Soundart Radio

Despite the rain we had a lovely overnight camp at the Sound Art Radio studio on the Dartington Estate with a small and hardy group of listeners enjoying the varied songs of birds around the estate. The event was part of the REVEIL 24 HOUR BROADCAST 2015 - as the name suggests a 24 hour continuous broadcast of dawn chorus's by listening stations around the world.

We started the camp with a Somatics workshop with Tzara Grey. Somatics is a practice that focuses attention on the soma, or "the body as perceived from within" and included some activities that explored the feeling of voice, a very appropriate introduction to bird song.

After that we took our ears for a stroll around the gardens, recording bird song as we went. Here's a recording of the walk, mixed by Sound Art Radio's Chris Booth ...

A short soundwalk through Dartington Gardens with Tony Whitehead. Various mics used. Badly mixed :) by Soundart_Radio on Mixcloud

We then retreated for the evening to the studios as the rain set in, with lots of talk of recording, bird song (and speculation as to why people don't whistle anymore?)

After a few hours sleep we were up at 4:30am to broadcast our dawn chorus for REVEIL 2015 ... which you can hear here:

Dawn and Dawn Chorus _ Dartington Hall Gardens in the rain. 03052015_0500-0600hrs by Soundart_Radio on Mixcloud

As the dawn chorus, and at last the rain, died down, we strolled to the River Dart and enjoyed some quiet in the company of blackbirds and wood pigeons to finish off the weekend.

Many thanks to Tzara Grey and Chris Booth for making sure everything ran smoothly, and to our intrepid group of listeners.

soundCamp 2015

On 3/4 May I'll be helping SoundArtRadio in Totnes run soundCamp, a weekend of activities about listening and birdsong based on the Dartington Estate.

Find out more at http://soundtent.org/

Songlines: Thelma Hulbert Gallery, 9 April 2105

On Thursday I ran a family sound recording workshop for the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in East Devon. The children recorded the sounds, particularly the birdsong, of Dumpdon Hill, and old iron age hill fort, then combined these with sounds from the Michael Fairfax installation in the gallery space - a series of strung wires on walls. We used Audacity to mix the sounds.

Listen to the childrens work on soundcloud ...

Songlines - Thelma Hulbert Gallery Workshop

On Thursday 9th April I'm running a family birdsong workshop at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton, Devon. Places limited to twelve, booking here.

In the morning we'll visit a local nature reserve to enjoy, learn about and record birdsong. After lunch we'll work in the gallery space with the current exhibition by Michael Fairfax to record the sounds of his installation. We'll then combine the two using laptops to produce our own compositions.

Ebb and Flow at RAMM, Exeter, opens today

Chris Watson (L) and Tony Whitehead (R) on the Exe Estuary, Devon

Over the past twelve months I've been helping wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson with locations in Devon for the recordings that were today installed in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum's new Ebb and Flow exhibition.

Full details of the exhibition can be found here.

Kinterbury Creek Sound Post

Thanks to the 10th St Budeaux Cubs and Scouts the recordings for the new "sound-post" at Kinterbury Creek in Plymouth are complete. You can listen to the sounds below.

This project has been supported by Plymouth City Council and community arts company Take-a-Part.

10th St Budeaux Cubs and Scouts visit Kinterbury Creek

On 2 June 2014 10th St Budeaux Cubs and Scouts visited Kinterbury Creek ... this is an audio record of the sounds they heard, and their descriptions of the Creek. These will be used as the basis for audio tracks for a "sound-post" to be installed at the Creek later this year.

This project has been supported by Plymouth City Council and community arts company Take-a-Part.

Kinterbury Creek Community Soundscape Project

In January I started work with a community arts project on the Barne Barton housing estate in Plymouth. The project, called BBRoots, is about looking at what is unique about the area, capturing it, celebrating it and using it to raise aspirations for the estate. My part of the project involves giving people the opportunity to listen to, record, and talk about Kinterbury Creek - a green space within the community that leads down to the Tamar Estuary. So far we have held a couple of informal Saturday morning sessions and a drop in event at the local community centre.

Some of the sounds collected so far can be heard here:

Arts Wave Devon sound art drop in day

Arts Wave Devon is an arts project supporting people to discover and engage with their own creativity and improve their wellbeing. The project works with communities to design a varied programme of opportunities, with a particular focus towards supporting groups working with children and young people, older people and people with disabilities.

On 1st of Feb I ran a sound art "drop-in" day for Arts Wave Devon to give people the opportunity to work with a variety of recording equipment and microphones to improvise and record with a variety of objects. This was inspired by my own work recording improvisations with natural materials and recent collaborations with American sound artist Jeph Jerman.

Recording Quiet Places: Interview for British Library Blog

There's an interview with me talking about Very Quiet Records over on the British Library Sound and Vision blog here. Thanks to Cheryl Tipp for asking!

Review of Bellever Quiet Walk

Nice review of the Bellever Quiet Walk from poet Tony Lopez ...

Friday evening, 26th April, Sara and I went on the Aune Head Arts Quiet Walk number 1, led by Sound Artist and Naturalist Tony Whitehead, 7.30pm to 10.30pm at Bellever Forest, just a mile south of Postbridge in the middle of Dartmoor. In the evening light we walked and ambled up woodland tracks near the Youth Hostel, taking plenty of time to stop and listen to the sounds of Dartmoor. It was a treat almost right away to hear our first cuckoo of the year in the distance at first, then it flew close by and continued to call. We saw a roe deer very close and heard chaffinches, wrens, blackbirds, greenfinches, sparrows, woodpigeons, songthrushes, goldcrests and other quite ordinary birds - but we really took time to listen and to hear all the calls. Higher up in a clearing we waited and listened for fifteen or twenty minutes for the last of the evening songbirds, and when the air changed as the light faded a songthrush's extraordinary repeated variations were echoed across the valley way into the distance.


     Then we walked higher up towards Bellever Tor on the forest track in among a group of about twenty Dartmoor ponies, snorting and munching, tearing at the grass. As it grew really dark we saw the first planets, Saturn and Mars, coming into view, and then the mass of stars. It was very cold when we stopped on a high ridge and saw a red glow in the distance that turned into a red full moon rising over the moor, the colour draining out as it lifted higher in the sky. Then we walked down a steep rocky path by torchlight back to the Bellever Forest car park and drove back through Moretonhampstead and Dunsford to Exmouth. What an amazing experience and great company, thanks to Tony Whitehead and Aune Head Arts.

http://t-lopez.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/quiet-walk-on-dartmoor.html

Bellever Quiet Walk

26 April 2013, Bellever Forest, Dartmoor, Devon.

Last night seven of us sat in silence in Bellever Forest and listened to the day's last song thrush sing as the sun set. Although it was alone, its voice echoed off the far slope of the valley; a duet of one. Then we walked up onto the top of the ridge by the tor and watched the full moon rise. The simplest things. 

Review of first Quiet Walk

Photo: Richard Povall

This was not intended to be a strenuous walk, the kind of walk that will always warm you up, but a ‘quiet walk’, a walk focussed on listening and being open and aware – on being, in fact. 

A lovely review of our first Quiet Walk by Richard Povall on his Start Bay Blog here.

Newbridge Quiet Walk

At just before dawn this morning seven of us set off on the first Quiet Walk organised by Very Quiet Records and Aune Head Arts. We followed Devon's River Dart upstream on to the edge of Dartmoor. Following days of rain the river was in spate, and quite impressive. The recording below, the first in a series that will document these walks, presents 60 minutes of fast flowing tumbling river as it runs through a deep valley on the edge of Dartmoor. Its static, white noise, but full of complexity and some rather impressive lower frequencies.

Radio Anywhere

Just finished the second of two training sessions on field recording with the good folk of Totnes's Soundart Radio and the Radio Anywhere project...

"Soundart Radio Anywhere is a new project from Soundart Radio 102.5fm, a licensed arts radio station in South Devon.

Radio Anywhere Ambassadors will broadcast from their homes, streets, neighbourhoods, towns and planet with Soundart’s amazing new studio-in-a-box.

We’re looking forward to hearing a wide range of new sounds and voices from many places, including school concerts, woods and rivers, Sunday morning church services, live shows from living rooms and kitchens, and village fêtes and meetings.

And hopefully all kinds of things we haven’t yet imagined."

For more info visit http://soundartradioanywhere.tumblr.com/about

Quiet Walk

A quiet walk invites participants to listen. To listen in detail. To find a place far from the crowd. A place where small things can be heard. A place where you can hear your own footsteps. A place where you can follow the sound a falling leaf. A place where other voices sing. We will not walk in silence. We will simply walk quietly and share whatever we hear.

On Sunday, 24 February, from 5pm to 8pm, Very Quiet Record's Tony Whitehead is leading the first of a series of Quiet Walks for Aune Head Arts - this one at Bellever Forest on Dartmoor, Devon.

These are an extension of the Very Quiet Records label. Each will be at a naturally quiet time, either at night or dusk/dawn.

More details and booking here

Assemblage

In November I'm participating in an art event in Yarner Wood on Dartmoor. The event is a series of interventions, installations and responses to the managed landscape by a group of artists whose current work investigates the landscape and environment and the relationship humans have with them. My contribution will be a quiet space, and quiet sit. More to follow.

The wood between the worlds

On the evening of 11 July a small group of wanderers wandered along lanes, through forest and over heath. Stories were told of alien cats and winged horrors and Honda civics. Of laurel and cyanide. Of sheep rolling and foxes in vans. Rush lights were stripped. Mole hills were excavated and flints sparked. Goatsuckers sang their crepuscular songs while white tissues were waved. Chocolate was eaten. Constellations were traced near the 23rd post. Dark mirrors were gazed at and revealed subtle lights and gentle ripples. And phosphenes danced. And owls called. And the air moved gently. Then it was midnight and the wanderers went home.

This walk was part of Spacex Gallery's Topophobia

Quiet

On the night of 19/20 June 2012 a small group of people sat listening, quietly, overnight by the River Dart at Dartington in Devon, UK. The group were participating in a conference concerned with arts and ecology called The Home and the World (see previous posts). These three recordings are taken before, during and after first light.