Scattered Voices: Part II

For Scattered Voices: Part II we made a trip to my home town of Liverpool in search of a more industrial set of sounds. We settled on the idea of recording in a scrapyard and were keen to capture working machinery as well as noises created by the work.

If we were more than a little surprised to be given such generous access to the J Bryan yard, it was due to the series of knock-backs we had already experienced. Attempts to secure a location in advance had resulted in a stream of fruitless emails and telephone calls and we eventually headed out with only a scribbled list of post codes. What followed was a rainy tour of Liverpool's many scrapyards and demolition sites.

It quickly became clear how difficult it would be to gain access. Turned away from the first yard, we continued to work down our list with increasingly bleak prospects for success. Fast running out of places to try, we travelled further and further away from the centre of town with still no luck. The last postcode on our list took us right out of Liverpool.

Much to our delight and relief, the staff at J Bryan showed a genuine enthusiasm for the project. We were to have a driver allocated to us to operate the yard's machinery and this was more than we could have hoped for. With the weather clearing just in time, our session at the yard couldn't have gone any better. The staff at J Bryan were fantastic, going out of their way to help us collect the best sounds and video footage.

Once home, we excitedly reviewed the recordings and set about editing the samples. The great variety of sounds, from ominous engine noises to piercing crashes and scrapes, were sure to give us plenty to work with. Within our selection there were a couple of sounds that stood out as having their own distinctive inner rhythm. Although we were perhaps initially most drawn to these, it is interesting to note that the most memorable samples often don't make the best material for improvising. The sounds need to be malleable enough to be manipulated and contorted and it was the longer samples containing more subtle variation which seemed to lend themselves best to this.

Scattered Voices: Part II has resulted in three improvisations, one of which has inspired another fantastic video from Joe. Our electronics setup has developed since Part I with the most notable change being that we now all have the facility to sample each other live. The end product is a great marker for where we are heading as a group - the 'constant reimagining of ideas' is becoming more relevant and the improvising more organic.

We would like to thank all the staff at J Bryan for their help in making this recording possible.

Tom Taylor: 16th September 2014

Scattered Voices: Part II

Archive