Responding to visual and poetic stimulus, I compiled a list of field recordings and sounds to capture in Strathkelvin, which is accessible at: https://sonicscotland.wixsite.com/scotscapes/gallery. I then carried out my Ambisonic recordings using my Zoom H3-VR recorder, which shall be elaborated on in more detail in a later post.
One major challenge, which impacted the quality of my field recordings and creative process, was the increasing population visiting Strathkelvin; however, I quickly adapted by recording at obscure times of the day and night, subsequently achieving cleaner recordings. Another obstacle during the recording process involved one of my locations, the stream tunnel, flooding for the duration of Winter, meaning that I simply could not record there. Adapting and overcoming this, I recorded my bouncy ball sound at home and processed the audio to align it with the visual environment, which I will come onto in more detail later. I was also unable to capture footsteps with an appropriate surface sound for the tunnel scene so I applied different reverb, delays and EQ to an educational sample to ensure that the footsteps marry up with the visual at 3.47.
When recording, I drew upon aural narrative skills which I first developed during a soundscapes workshop in which I responded sonically to Sylvia Plath’s poem, ‘The Elm’. During that process, I learned how to decode a creative text and translate it through sound. I transferred these skills to my field recordings for Scotscapes and aurally expressed the themes of J.B.’s poetry in an imaginative, non-clichéd manner. For example, at 1.14, I characterised the “ghost train” and “centuries collide” using a toy train whistle – which I recorded under the echo-heavy Bedlay bridge – and created crescendo, ghostly whispers from a reversed flushing toilet recording. I intended these sound-remnants to leak out from the past during the voiceover and enhance the poetic narrative. Using my soundscape, I drew awareness to pivotal moments of the visual and poetic narrative whilst giving certain lines the space to breathe for artistic effect. For example, at 0.21, I let the sound of the “drag of industry” – three different metal gate recordings – ring out to allow a moment for reflection on the dialogue.
I sought to infuse a mix of diagetic and non-diagetic sound into Scotscapes, taking the listener on a journey through heightened reality where reality becomes suspended at key points. Thus, my sounds do not always reflect exactly what is happening visually but explore the sound of a particular space or object in a connected guise while it appears on-screen. At 2.21, for example, the sound of ice being cracked underfoot at Bedlay bridge depicts the “bones of youth’s crushed ambition” rather than correlating with on-screen movements. This audio-visual disconnect aims to create a subtle cognitive dissonance in the listener whilst retaining the acoustic authenticity of this “soundmark”.
I further adopted the practice of recording interactions with objects found in Strathkelvin. This allowed me to think outside of the box with aural narration, capture sounds unique to the space and exploit its acoustic potential. Sonic playground artists like Echo City (YouTube, 2009) and sound mapping workshops with Graham Jefferey inspired my practice here and gave me the confidence to move away from traditional recording blueprints and towards a more playful, “sonic intervention” style. For example, at 3.25, I threw small sticks into the stream by the tunnel and swirled larger branches in the stream creating ripples. This sonic improvisation has liberated me as an engineer and incorporated fresh, creative methods into my practice, enabling me to produce distinctive sounds which correspond with Scotscapes’ narrative.
I further sought to enhance the social, political and historical threads of the narrative by recording my interaction with various objects under Bedlay bridge. This is one of the area’s most notable soundmarks with its distinctive reverb tail, which is reminiscent of a flutter echo. From 2.45 - 3.07, I aurally characterise our recent past and present with the aggressive striking of metal pipes and a broken metal chair base found under the bridge to convey industrial sounds whilst juxtaposing these with natural, wooden stick sounds to represent our historical interactions with our environment and ancestral tools.
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