Unearthings sanderson & sanderson

Over the centuries the nightingale has flown in and out of the English national psyche, and its song has been an inspiration for musicians and poets throughout the ages. One of the cultural myths concerning the bird involved it jamming along to a cellist during a series of live recordings broadcast by the BBC, though it now seems likely that the corporation used the skills of a siffleur to impersonate its song.
This track is based on variations of a dance by John Playford, and incorporates samples from the 1943 propaganda film The Demi-Paradise.
The nightingales were recorded on Westleton Heath in Suffolk.

sharon sanderson - field recordings
robert sanderson - acoustic guitar & atmospherics

recorded by sanderson & sanderson

a soundscape based on a derelict nuclear weapon testing site on the Suffolk coast

blue danube

big bertha

brown bunny

blue peacock

blue fox

blue hare

blue steel

blue water

green bamboo

green granite

purple granite

short granite

orange herald

violet club

pixie

knobkerrie

sea slug

red beard

red snow

yellow sun

blue danube

(code names for atomic weapons research projects linked to the Orford Ness testing site)

We navigated by stars,
charted our course by constellations,
carried cargo on the German Ocean from Lubek to Lynn
and fished for herring and cod
in the cold north waters.

We lined up with the church towers
as we pulled into port,
and carved our crude ships
on the pillars in the nave -

votive scratchings as we listened to long sermons
for the saints and the hammer-beam angels
to intercede for us,
and grant us safe passage.

And after the harbour has silted up
and after the river has changed its course
and after the town has hollowed out
and long after we have sailed from these shores

our graffiti ships will still be there

safe in the haven
of our souls.

sharon sanderson - field recordings
robert sanderson - music, atmospherics & voice

Graffiti Ships inspired by the medieval ship graffiti in St. Nicholas’ church at Blakeney, North Norfolk.

A fanfare and field recording made during the red deer rutting season on Westleton Heath in Suffolk

A summer nocturne, with the strange primeval churring of a nightjar, and a couple of muntjacs barking into the darkness.