HARKEE Jane Pitt

Harkee is a series of podcasts about listening to the environment, sound walks as inspiration and material for composition, spatial sound in composition & sound experiences in public space.

For this episode I spoke to Michel Risse, artist and director, Decor Sonore a unique company based in Paris, France, who create ephemeral site-specific sound experiences in public open spaces that play with the architectural acoustics & sounds found in the local environment. I experienced their new work Le Son qui vient du Ciel aka Cloudspeakers in Paris in November 2019, it's still resounding in my memory. Sounds seem to emerge from facades, fly through streets, float in squares, merge and disappear into the existing soundscape. With no visible evidence of a sound system it's hard to believe your ears!

We had a couple of glitches beginning our online call but finally connected and following a small sonic diversion Michel begins by speaking about how he finds and chooses the field sounds he'll work with to create Le Son qui vient du Ciel (aka Cloudspeakers)..

I hope to experience more sonic sleight of hand from Decor Sonore some day. Visit their website for details about their past and present work & to keep in touch with their future presentations www.decorsonore.org 

The podcast ends in the spirit of urban soundscape as music with a recording I made on Chatham High Street just after dawn on a Sunday when the electronic ad hoardings seem to sing as they roll – a possible sharawadji moment for me.

Harkee was produced by Jane Pitt and made possible with support from Arts Council England South East Developing Your Creative Practice fund.

Harkee is a series of podcasts about listening to the environment, sound walks as inspiration and material for composition, spatial sound in composition & sound experiences in public space.

In this episode electro-acoustic composer Aki Pasoulas talks about the innovative multi-sensory process of listening to the environment and mapping his sound-walks which he used to make his beautiful work Irides. He begins first by describing the multi-speaker sound system MAAST, which he directs at University of Kent where he is Senior Lecturer at the Centre of Music & Audio Technology.

I urge you to go to Aki's soundcloud page to hear his piece Irides, link in blog. Let's end drenched by a short rainy episode I recorded during a tropical storm by the Indian Ocean in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka – be warned it features 2 extra LOUD Thunder Cracks.

Harkee was produced by Jane Pitt and made possible with support from Arts Council England South East Developing Your Creative Practice fund.

https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/maast/2019/06/04/maast-introduction/  MAAST link

https://soundcloud.com/aki_p/irides  Irides link