A 5.1 channel sound work (archived stereo audio mix in 'audio')
See Spadeadam (2003) for further information on the site. An exploratory piece - for 5.1 surround sound - concentrated on the unique acoustics in the tunnel at Prior Lancy, Spadeadam which connected the control room to the engine test stands for the Blue Streak rocket. These recordings were made at different times a year apart but were digitally combined by virtue of being recordings of the same spaces. Specific recordings include archaeologists surveying the control room (now used for storage of East German army military equipment), a walk I made wearing binaural microphones, a walk in the tunnel with an RAF officer; and the muted presence of a low-flying jet heard underground. A convolved reverb effect was created with sound engineer Gareth Jones by capturing an actual sample of reverberation when walking in the tunnel. I considered this as a kind of archaeological artefact -now stored in the audio software. All the sounds used of Prior Lancy were filtered through the Prior Lancy tunnel reverb effect - and a live microphone created additional feedback harmonics. For me, the bagpipes acted as a form of sonar. The same piece of music played around the concrete corridors encircling the control room, and then dovetailed together, was creating a different form of surveying to describe this place. |
