Afterness, Orford Ness, Suffolk, UK - 1/7/21-31/10/21
Library Of Sound - Brian d’Souza, Chris Watson and Iain Chambers
I’m delighted to be one of the artists commissioned by Art Angel and The National Trust to create work inspired by Orford Ness in Suffolk. Code named ‘The Island of Secrets’, it has been used by the Ministry of Defence through both World Wars and extensively during the Cold War for bomb testing, early forms of radar and espionage. Now owned by The National Trust who have a policy of ‘Curated Decay’ - it has been reclaimed by nature and is really like no place on earth.
I’ve created five long form audio compositions that were inspired by my trips there over the past few months.
Brian d’Souza - Library of Sound
Orford Ness came on my radar at a time of extreme personal loss, trauma and tragedy. It quickly became a beacon of hope: an extraterrestrial land in which the detritus from a bygone era has been reclaimed by a natural environment full of beauty and intrigue. The ’Ness will never fully escape its past, but its most recent evolution is a welcome one, and one which presented me with a timely inspiration for a way forward.
My audio compositions are designed with these thoughts in mind, rooted in the uneasiness of the past, reclaimed by the beauty of the natural environment. Over the past six months, I used a combination of recording techniques to capture the essence of a variety of locations on the Ness: the siren song from the railings on top of Bomb Ballistics, the glacial drip of water and paint from the walls of Lab 1, the relentless back and forth of the waves on the beach, the eerie calm from within the wind-battered cavity of the Shelter, and the foreboding rust on the entrance to the Armoury.
I manipulated these recordings to create long-form sound pieces that evoke the beauty and the paranoia that I felt on the Ness. I hope they give listeners the opportunity to experience being on Orford Ness even if they don’t have the opportunity to visit.
