Here are a couple of examples of how I made use of the acoustics in my local area during lockdown, when visiting sites (travelling outside of my city) was not possible.
1 – Railway Tunnel
The audio was recorded in a particulalry resonant tunnel under a railway bridge, and integrates another street recording, a drone sung to mimic the ‘wail-like’ sounds of a building site.
This track featured in a Dark Alchemy live stream by Eye Spirit (Conny Prantera aka The SeeR) youtu.be/kQLy1oKSbcE , and is the first step towards making a collaborative performance, when its possible again. Below is the original vocal loop which I sent Conny, which she asked me to use as a starting point for the sited improvisation.
I also produced a version with some basic effects on, which could be good to use live at some point.
2 – Building Site Drone Duet
Throughout lockdown, the building site nearby has been in operation. As the city sounds faded out, it became more and more audible, and more intrusive.
At an already anxious time, this wasnt a welcome thing to experience, but since I had no control over it, I felt the only thing to do is to lean into it. I listened to a particuar drone that the site was producing and decided to try and duet with it, to find a calm meeting point through sound.
The result is a kind of meditative yet tense track. I can say, making it did help.
Excerpt of the raw recording of the building site:
And the vocal drone in isolation:
Site Singing 