Tuesday, May 19, 2009

performance in tartu


apologies for not updating sooner, but i have spent the last couple of days travelling to tartu, and recording here, with last night and this morning spent editing said recordings ready for a performance at the y-gallery, here in tartu.
the town is pretty, like an estonian cambridge maybe, with lots of students and cycling around town. the other side of this is you find some of the disaffected 'youth' investing time and money in loud ugly cars they like to drive round town very fast in.
i must have walked a fair few miles yesterday - i think i visited every corner of the town, and it was refreshingly successful, with a large number of good quality recordings captured. tallinn, as the capital, is very noisy traffic-wise. great if all you want to record is traffic!
i got some amazing sounds from the bridge in the image i have included, but you'll have to wait until you hear the completed composition from the residency... (you'll notice the large number of locks attached to the side of the bridge. a tradition of estonian marriage is to have your names engraved on a lock and then attach it to a bridge like so, although apparently these are to be removed as they rust and damage the metal of the bridge.)

i have however uploaded some other recordings, the links for which are below:
http://www.archive.org/details/river_hydro
http://www.archive.org/details/tartu_crows

a special mention goes to toomas thetloff, who has been the perfect host since i arrived in tartu. we spent quite a portion of the evening recording his wire brush and contact mic setup, which sounds lovely, and somewhat steve reich-like. i hope to include an installation of toomas' work in the exhibition of active crossover later in the year, and maybe even get him to bristol to perform as part of the event.

1 comment:

  1. great picture, Simon. There's a similar tradition in Taranto, Italy. Italian sailors, before heading out to sea, will affix locks from their seabags in the same way to a bridge. The idea being that the Sailors won't need the locks while at sea, and symbolizing their departure and return.

    Thanks for the links to the recordings. Will listen soon.

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