Vibrating String



This pic of my partner Jo and I was one we took ahead of our time working with Alan Lamb for the 2006 Unsound Festival. (The lamb here was named Dewkiss by my son and is the subject of this earlier video Battering Ram.)

We were aiming for Australian gothic.

Alan Lamb is a Western Australian artist known for recording telephone wires and making sculptures which respond to the environment. One of these is 'the wires' he built at the property where we were living.

From 2004 to 2009 I recorded over 70 gigabytes of the sound of this large-scale aeolian harp and in 2010 I edited together highlights to create a three-hour recording Vibrating String.

The opening track has about ten minutes of bowing and then the wind plays the rest. Intermingled are the sounds of the environment, including birdsong, cicadas, insects, bats and a lonely frog who sounds like they find a mate near the end.