Author: Mark

Precipitation Studies Volume 1: Surfaces

The first in a series of three rainscapes composed by Mark Vernon, broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM, 10th October 2010 for Framework’s 300th edition anniversary show.

Rain has a unique ability to sound out and describe the surfaces in our immediate surroundings, making us newly aware of the timbre, dimensions and other sonic qualities of all things in our vicinity. Rainfall on pots and pans, tubs and tins, car bonnets and cafe tables, park benches and rubbish bins, drainpipes and scaffolding, umbrellas and window panes, conservatories and caravans, pavements and microphones…

“I opened the front door, and rain was falling. I stood for a few minutes. Lost in the beauty of it. Rain has a way of bringing out the contours of everything; it throws a coloured blanket over previously invisible things; instead of an intermittent and thus fragmented world, the steadily falling rain creates continuity of acoustic experience.”

(from: John M. Hull, Touching the Rock. An Experience of Blindness, Arrow books, London, 1991, pp.22-23)

 

A radio documentary about the ‘Sound House’ – a site-specific installation created by Sarah Kenchington. With the help of staff at Modern Art Oxford Sarah transformed a recently vacated family home that was due for demolition into a multi-faceted musical instrument. I was originally commissioned to document the installation through sound with a brief to re-work this material into a composition that in some way reflected the experience. Interviews with Sarah and several former residents of the now demolished Orlit houses on the Rosehill estate were combined with these compositions and field recordings to form the basis of this programme.

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“…I have been keenly aware of the intense and often reciprocal dialogue between the audible and the visible. Buildings provide spaces for living, but are also de facto instruments, giving shape to the sound of the world. Music and architecture are related not only by metaphor, but also through concrete space.”

Daniel Libeskind – Soundscape for Sound and Vision (2003)

“When the devil pulls the strings, all the world must dance…”

Constructing an episodic narrative from silent movie intertitles, Vernon and Burns translate grand melodramatic gestures and deadpan pratfall pantomime into the audio realm. Hand-tinted frames of sound, under-cranked audio slapstick and sepia-soaked expressionism for the ear are projected onto the cinema screen of the mind’s eye.

This programme was commissioned by WORM and was produced during a residency at WORM studios, Rotterdam. It was performed live as part of ‘Popular Noise for the Masses’ at WORM, March 2010. The narrator was Giles Bailey.

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First aired on Cafe Sonore, VPRO Radio 6, June 12th 2010. Subsequent broadcasts on Resonance 104.4 FM, 2011.

A studio version of a live radiophonic work produced by Vernon & Burns, commissioned by Tramway, Glasgow in 2012. The piece explores the internal space of the subconscious and the logic of dreams. Part documentary, part experimental radio play, it features readings from Barry Burns’ dream diary intermingled with interviews about people’s dreams and sleeping habits set to an accompaniment of sound effects and music.
 
“I have always been amazed at the way an ordinary observer lends so much more credence and attaches so much more importance to waking events than to those occurring in dreams… Man… is above all the plaything of his memory.”
André Breton

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The piece was originally performed on two consecutive nights in October 2012 as part of a triple bill of performances with Lisbeth Gruwez / Voetvolk and Zoe Irvine & Pippa Murphy. The radio version has been aired on Resonance 104.4FM, Radiophrenia, Basic FM and Soundart Radio.

The second programme in the ‘Bedside Radio’ series produced as part of a two-year period as digital artist in residence at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert, Scotland.

This composed soundscape was created from recordings made in various hospital departments between 2011 and 2013. It includes insights and conversations with staff about their perception of the sound environment in which they work.

In addition to Forth Valley Royal, recordings were also made in Stirling and Falkirk Community Hospitals. Special thanks to all staff and patients in NHS Forth Valley Hospitals for their help and cooperation.
The sounds that make up this piece were recorded in the following departments:
Anaesthesiology, Clinical Simulation Centre, Health Records, Reception, Laboratories, Ophthalmology, Physiotherapy, Oral and Maxillofacial, Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Mail Room, Neonatal Unit, Pharmacy, Renal Unit and Speech and Language Therapy Services.

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Originally produced for the launch of Channel 604 (Radio Royal’s new arts channel) this piece has subsequently been performed as a live radiophonic work at Forth Valley Royal Hospital and the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow. A version has also been aired as an edition of ‘Framework:afield’ for Patrick McGinley’s Framework radio show.

This project was supported by Creative Scotland and NHS Forth Valley.

Using unconventional recording techniques and studio trickery certain qualities within the Derry soundscape have been highlighted, exaggerated or distorted into something unusual and unexpected – obscuring what was once recognisable and enabling radio listeners to hear the city in a new light.

Taking the everyday sounds of the city as a starting point, a series of field recordings selected for their ambiguous qualities were played back to Derry residents; the sounds became increasingly distorted as the sequence progressed. The ambiguity was heightened through a variety of unusual recording processes including extreme close-ups, electromagnetic induction, ultrasound, binaural stereo, hydrophones and contact mics. Additionally, digital processing techniques were used to further ‘denature’ these once familiar sounds. Participants were asked to identify, describe and imitate each sound. The resulting ‘sound descriptions’ were in turn used as briefs to create artificial or exaggerated sounds matching the qualities described by subjects. In the final work, the natural and unnatural sounds of Derry are intermingled in a long form radiophonic sound composition that meanders through the city accompanied by insights and analysis of the sound environment by the people who inhabit it.

Featuring the voices: of Sarah Barr, Fiona Burke, Eamonn Brown, Amanda Doherty, Charlene Smith and Marta.

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Commissioned for the ‘Derry City of Culture 2013’ radio residency broadcasts by Resonance FM and the Jerwood Foundation in association with VOID gallery.

First broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM, October 2013.

For many years I have collected found tapes; primarily voice recordings – audio letters, home karaoke and recordings made by amateur tape recording enthusiasts. I particularly enjoy the unselfconscious and accidental moments within these recordings when the equipment is being tested or the operator is unaware that they are still recording. The majority of these recordings begin with the ubiquitous: “testing, testing, 1,2,3”. This recurring phrase appears in my collection time and time again in an array of different voices, accents and languages. The piece I have created from these incidents is literally a test signal – a collage of recordings of microphone tests compiled from my own archives.

Produced by Mark Vernon. Commissioned by Pixel Palace for Basic FM, Newcastle upon Tyne.

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This piece was first broadcast on a continuous loop for a month as Basic FM’s inaugural webcast. It has since been aired on Radiophrenia, Radio Revolten and Resonance 104.4 FM as part of the series ‘Data for the Doubtful’.