Cai Gwilym Pritchard

After finding a parking space nearby and making our way to the building that sits on the main road, too short sets of stairs lead up to two double doors, only one lays open. on the front of the building up high the words “the borough”  in the triangle formed by the sloping roof and the bar formed by the straight edge of the architecture “ Welsh congregational Chapel”  the one open door leads into a shallow lobby or a tall man in a suit hands out hymn books.  He’s suited because of all traditions of dressing well when going to church from a time when the community was centred around church and saw an opportunity to present one’s family in a good way to avoid judgement. The hymn books are handed out to remind people of the lyrics to the song as which will be collectively sung, done so as a form of worship but also to Foster a sense of community.  the songs are in Welsh the language of culture and nation based roughly 263 km away, not everyone speaks it fluently the result of years of English restrictions but most can read it well enough to use the himbox, some don’t need the books for certain songs they remember them well from their childhood and it often creates a strong sense of nostalgia.  people talk amongst themselves after they place coats and bags on their respective pews, all of which face the end of the room at which there is a raised pulpit.  Just in front of this poll bit is an electric organ connected to two large almost-rooms located on the top left and right corners of the large space, in these almost rooms there are speakers covered by a facade of pipes to emulate an analogue organ. The space is tall and the sound reverberates around it the voices of everyone talking and updating each other about their lives and the lives of their relatives in both English and Welsh.  a man in a jumper and smart trousers ( dressed in such a way to provide more movement when playing the organ) sits at the organ.  The preacher, having greeted people, goes up to the parapet and waits for everyone to notice she is there and then for everyone to go and sit down.  when they do, should be going to speak, long passages and Welsh, and then switching to English and then Welsh again.  she projects her voice so everyone can hear her.  occasionally she will Direct everyone to sing from a hymn book there is a set of numbers on display; each number corresponds to a hymn in the book in case people forget where they are, the organ player plays the tune, using his own set of numbers on a different part of the wall as a reference. As everyone sings different people sing in different vocal ranges, depending on the quality of their voice, this is not formally organised and is done according to their ability. After about 2 hours of this cycle of hymns and sermons, the organist plays a specific song, it has no significance, he just tends to play that one, and the service itself is over

What does it take to create sound art? In the modern age it feels like everything requires a computer of some description in order to fully use everything available to you, internet access and a computer opens up a whole world of opportunity and feels like an essential in order to create and be seen doing it. Is it as essential as it feels? It all depends on what we create sound art for, is the purpose of art to be seen? Can art be considered successful or unsuccessful?

In terms of what it take to create sound art, my own journey started with, at the bare minimum looking for a mic and a Daw in which I could edit, it never occured to me that what I was making could exist in a non-digital format, the world of audio drama podcasting was born in the digital/internet age, there was no other way to so effectively promote and distribute what I made, this is, now more than ever, true of music. If you look at any article on the internet about “essential equipment” for music production there are many common items. According to Roland 

If you want to get started in computer music production, there are four essential pieces of studio equipment you’ll need:

• A computer
• Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Software
• An interface
• Monitors or Headphones (preferably both)

Of course if you’ll want to do vocals you’ll need a whole extra plethora of items to get the cleanest recordings. These four items represent the modern state of sound art, it works under the assumption (often rightly so) that the artist wants to digitally distribute. It is the standard, vinyl and tape may persevere but only in the worlds of those who care for such things, existing in nostalgia or caring about the fidelity to such an extent. But for everyone else streaming is a major method of music consumption. As of 2019, 81% of respondents to IFPI’s study across 21 countries used some kind of on demand streaming service, and in the midst of a major global pandemic, it does not require a terrific stretch of the imagination to say that this number will only have increased.                                                      What does this mean then for the new sound artist entering the world in this age? For those that these four items are an impossibility? Is there a world for them to work in? Is there a solution? It all depends on what the purpose of creating sound art is for an individual. If it is to be heard, to have your work be put out there, it’s getting easier, with a majority of people able to access the internet (some 59.5% according to statista). If the gradually impending threat of global warming doesn’t destroy the global south before it can develop a stronger internet infrastructure then soon it seems like this number will only increase. 

Music as protest is not an entirely new concept to me, the main place it has held in my life has been the eisteddfod genedlaethol, a traditional welsh festival tracing its roots all the way back to 1176, it is a showcase for music, poetry, literature. It is the centre of welsh nationalism, it has been such a key part of keeping the welsh language and culture alive. Take, for example the poem, “Fy Ngwlad” a poem by Gerallt Lloyd Owen which lamented the investiture of prince Charles as “Prince of Wales”. This poem and performance was controversial at the time and has become part of the canon of welsh literature. For a language and culture that has been historically suppressed (see the treachery of the blue books) and whose validity is still consistently called into question, simply performing in welsh and having such a strong bastion of the culture is an act of protest, the eisteddfod encourages learners and strengthens the position of welsh as a language by maintaining old druidic traditions of music and performance. For an example of welsh protest music that exists outside of the eisteddfod (but no doubt would not exist without it), see Dŵr by Huw Jones, a song commemorating the flooding of Tryweryn, the powerful performance transcends the language, you hear the pain and rage in huw jones’ voice as he talks of the event, the wailing in the background only serves to further emphasise this rage and melancholy. 

Can, then, a message be transmitted without language? As someone who (much to my own shame) never learned welsh, all I need to understand the message of Dŵr is the context and a sense of empathy. Take, for example, Matthew Herbert’s The End of Silence, which takes sounds recorded by Sebastian Meyer during the libyan civil war to remind himself of “the privilege of peace” that he is “currently afforded, living a lifestyle subsidized by others who happened to be born above oil”

Herbert, Matthew. 2013b. “‘The End Of Silence’ – Conversation with Sebastian Meyer”. Personal Website. November 19. Accessed January 29. (Link).

Listening to The End of Silence is chilling, it gives me this almost sick feeling knowing that the sounds used come from death, violence, and hatred. It is ominous and scary, a moment that has been etched into a “memorial for war” I think it effectively frames it in a way that stops the listener from just breezing past the reality of the situation, when we are constantly presented by a new tragedy seemingly every day it’s easy to become desensitised, the world becomes one emalgamted tragedy. The end of Silence forces you to stop and reflect, there are 3 parts with part 1 being the longest at 24 minutes and 11 seconds long with plenty of quiet moments to consider the context, it drives the point home, no words, the communication is done only by presenting the emotions and allowing the listener to meditate. 

“If accents can be understood as a kind of noise artefact, an auditory consequence of the enduring impressions of place, environment, sociality and body, ‘accent recognition’ software is an attempt to stabilize and categorise these artefacts.”

Dr. Thomson, M. (2020). PEDRO OLIVEIRA – There is a Point at Which Methods Devour Themselves. [online] Oliveira.work. Available at: https://oliveira.work/there-is-a-point-at-which-methods-devour-themselves/ [Accessed 8 Feb. 2021].

I am absolutely terrified of surveillance, it’s a fear that has always been looming over me for such a long time, when I was younger I deleted my Facebook because I was paranoid that my information was being siphoned off and sold (which later was proven to be true to everyone) I closely follow news of facial recognition and ways that technology is being used to invade our private lives. The public space for me is sacred; it belongs to everyone and should act as a no man’s land where no one is above another and we should be able to simply exist in neutrality without being watched and judged. 

I am in love with speech and voice, I think it’s such an incredible thing, that when hearing it, morphed or infected with glitches, there is a deep animalistic feeling I feel, recognising patterns is in our nature and it’s wonderful to hear it in all forms, even if emulated by computers and synths and such, I love hearing it.

I know that this new accent recognition technology will never be used on me, but I still fear for those that will suffer because of it. It has taken something as wonderful and unique as human speech and is using to further an ugly and vile status quo. I do worry I may be a luddite and that I should not be so closed off to new technologies, but in a world that is this right wing, that has stirred up a hatred of immigrants and “the other” I cannot see a way in which it becomes implemented in a safe way that doesn’t cause massive harm.

Having all my elements together was a nice feeling, it was very gratifying hearing everything come together, a similar feeling to when I finish an episode of my audio drama. In the above image I’ve labelled the major elements of my piece, talking about the elements, how they work in the piece and just generally parting the curtain a little bit

It was certainly a challenge trying to figure out how to best go about organizing and divvying up roles and responsibilities. Inherently, doing a group project when you can’t physically meet it is flawed, there are a multitude of reasons I feel it’s a much harder task. It’s simple but also key things, being able to look someone in the eyes and actually talk about their side of what needs to be done makes it more real, whereas over zoom/collaborate etc. it somehow feels less important, the pandemic has affected everyone but for me personally I feel so much less motivated, I love my course and find it all interesting but with the state of the world it sometimes is a struggle to keep it up. 

Regardless, due to this I felt that it would be best if we were to do some kind of anthology, have each member create a section of the piece, that we could take and throw together with some kind of framework, be it simple transitions that take elements of one piece and link it with the next or perhaps an entire fictional radio show. One idea that was floated around was a post apocalyptic radio show (a la Fallout) that would either feature, or be interrupted by, the pieces that each person involved would contribute. Ultimately the idea that seemed to stick was to lean in to the eclectic mix of styles, genres etc. and have it be very abstract, dada inspired. As of writing we do not have every piece to hand so it is unclear how exactly each piece will fit in and how the change over from section to section will work. In terms of assigning roles I set up a google, having people vote on the genre they felt was best and then deciding what roles, really though all we needed was content creators and then dubbing engineers. Luckily Hwyel and Dean were more than happy to act as dubbing engineers, we opened it up to people that if they have specific ideas about how they wanted their piece introduced, however it feels like such planning can only really take place once we have everyone’s contributions