Tag: mark vernon

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Magneto Mori: Brussels is a process-based sound work that investigates the collective memory of Brussels residents, intertwining them with the environmental sounds of the city to weave new and unexpected narratives. It is an exploration of tape recording as a form of memory storage – and the deliberate distressing, eroding and deterioration of present day sounds to disrupt their chronology; historicising the present and fast-forwarding the effects of time. Contrasting and combining these sounds with higher fidelity recordings draws attention to the different substrata of time that are an intrinsic (though largely unacknowledged) part of any non-realtime sound production.

The intention here was to create a ‘memory tape’ that acts as an audio portrait of the city and its inhabitants. This involved asking people to recall their earliest or most vivid memories and recording them direct to open reel tape. On the other side of the tape everyday sounds of the city were captured.

Through a series of processes that mirror the complexity and frailty of human memory this ‘memory tape’ was then fragmented, muddled, corroded, partially erased with magnets, buried in the ground for 10 days and finally excavated and reconstituted. During this process sounds and memories are literally erased and the remains are spliced back together in a random sequence. The end result is a cut-up collage of fragmented voices and distorted field recordings. In some instances I chose to ‘re-construct’ parts of the missing memories using copies made of the original recordings.

In counterpoint, a semi-autobiographical text by Elodie A. Roy reflecting on her parents memories of Brussels is interspersed throughout the piece appearing as a series of answerphone messages.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:00 — 139.5MB)

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this edition of framework:afield, entitled a world behind this world, has been produced in scotland by regular contributor mark vernon. for more of his work see http://meagreresource.com/. producer’s notes:

A World Behind This World is a composed soundscape created from sounds recorded on location at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop in Lumsden, Aberdeenshire and the surrounding areas.

Depending on how you look at it – this is either an expanded version of the album released on Persistence of Sound earlier this year – or a condensed version of the original two-and-a-half-hour longform broadcast produced for Scottish Sculpture Workshop’s radio station, Lumsden Live in 2021.

In addition to sounds of the rural environment – recordings of various machines, equipment and processes from the workshop feature heavily. ‘Performed’ by technician, Eden Jolly, sound sources include the copper guillotine, extractor fans, electrical saws, drills, the furnace, welding torches, anvils, hydraulic jacks, sanding machines, grinders and electric hoists. The piece also features a recurring refrain made from the eerie sounds of the wood pellet burner that kept me awake for most of the night when I was staying on site.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:00 — 138.2MB)

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this edition, entitled magneto mori: vienna, has been produced in scotland by regular contributor mark vernon. for more information see https://meagreresource.com. producer’s notes:

Magneto Mori: Vienna is a fragmented sound portrait of the city constructed from found sounds, buried tapes and field recordings. In this de-composition sounds from Vienna’s past and present are conjoined in a stew of semi-degraded audiotape. […]

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this edition has been produced by regular contributor mark vernon. producer’s notes:

Mark Vernon – Ribbons of Rust
Audio Archaeology Series Volume 2: Laem Thian

Ribbons of Rust continues a series of works exploring concepts around audio archaeology and found sound that began with the ‘Lend an ear, leave a word’ LP – Volume 1 in the Audio Archaeology series – released on Kye records in 2016. It is an irreverent, non-purist approach to field recording that puts found sound recordings of voices and music from the past on an equal footing with contemporary field recordings of a particular location. […]

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this edition of framework:afield has been produced in scotland by mark vernon. for more information see his website at http://meagreresource.com. producer’s notes:

The composition of this soundscape combines field recordings of contemporary Lisbon with found tape recordings from the past; reel-to-reel tapes, micro-cassettes and Dictaphones collected from the Feira de Ladra market – a popular and lively flea market in the Alfama district.

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The Dominion of Din is a radio play made out of recordings from a single fixed perspective over an eighteen-year period. It is created entirely from field recordings made out of the rear window of my flat in the West End of Glasgow. In essence, it is a catalogue of exterior sounds that have annoyed, disturbed or angered me over the years living at this residence – and sounds that have largely disappeared during lockdown. […]