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Sea Songs

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Rob Mackay

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Abstract

This piece from Wild Eye's Sea Songs weaves together a collage of recordings sound artist and acoustic ecologist Rob Mackay made during the project. It attempts to convey a sense of the more-than-human world in which we live and to open our ears to the strange and often unheard soundscape which is literally a few meters off the shoreline.“The piece opens with the ghostly wailing of grey seals, perhaps evoking the memories of mariners’ tales of mermaids and selkie. We then move to a rock pool on the beach at South Bay where we can hear the release of oxygen bubbles as some seaweed photosynthesises, revealing the often hidden sound of this process.We’re then introduced to human voices, but from the listening perspective of the rockpool. The piece then transitions to the howling din of a jetski recorded underwater which then moves to the constant hum of a boat engine, reminding us of our entangled and often invasive relationship with our environment.Through this morass of sound comes the unmistakable clicking sound of bottlenose dolphins as they communicate and echolocate underwater.This sound develops into a sound edit made by workshop participant Alfie Johnson who weaves in a breathlike sound from the sea, reminding us of our genetic heritage with these ocean mammals. ”


Publication metadata

Author(s): Mackay R

Publication type: Digital or Visual Media

Publication status: Published

Year: 2021

Extent of Work: 7:17

Publisher: Invisible Dust

Place Published: Scarborough

URL: https://invisibledust.com/projects/sea-songs-soundwalks/#:~:text=Sea%20Songs%20is%20a%20sound,Scarborough%20and%20one%20in%20Whitby.

Notes: Performances to date: - Soundstainability – International FKL Symposium on Soundscape. RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano, Switzerland. 7th October 2023. - Big Ideas by the Sea. The Old Parcel Office, Scarborough. 21st May 2022. - Culture Lab Ballroom. 8th December 2022. - A Space for Sound. The Arches – Newcastle University. 24th – 30th October 2022. - Sonic Cartography Conference. University of Kent. 29th October 2022. - River Shannon Soundwalk, ICMC 2022: Standing Wave – International Computer Music Conference. University of Limerick. 8th July 2022. - New York Electroacoustic Music Festival. Abrons Arts Centre, New York, USA. 22nd June 2022. - XMTR Radio Hour. Resonance FM radio broadcast. 13th April 2022. - Sea Songs Soundwalk Whitby (for Musicport via the Echoes app). 22nd – 24th October 2021. - Sea Songs Soundwalk Scarborough (via the Echoes app). 15th October 2021 – ongoing. See also https://soundcloud.com/invisible_dust/sea-songs-sound-piece


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