Tomorrow in Abercych there will be a full day of art – installation, walks, sound, movement and performance with the Maynard Abercych. More info here https://www.may-nard.org/afon-a-weekend-of-deep-listening-on-the-rivers-dulais-and-cych
From 4-7pm I will be in the village hall revisiting some of the processes explored and developed over the last 2 years with a mix of vinyl, field recordings and modular synths.
I had a great few days working with the Maynard Afon project this last week, I posted a bit to describe my process and thoughts before my visit here.
Arriving with ideas of exploring the cottage as a container for the watery material gathered over the last year, I started immediately projecting video onto different areas of the interior.
The temptation of the vessels on the dresser was too much to resist.
While mapped water played on the different vessels in one room, there was a single channel live video mix projected onto the wall in the other.
This used video clips from over the last year in a structured, layered composition designed to constantly change, reflecting both the control and manipulation which we impose and the inherent changing nature of the water itself.
Over time, the water returns.
I spent some time on the river in the few days there too. Recording more sounds, focusing attention on the resonant, underground spaces I found nearby, the places where human presence has been fixed and changed the acoustic nature of the water course.
With a body of recordings I set about filtering the water sounds, using a QPAS filter I was able to single out different frequencies and add resonance to create a shifting soundscape from only recordings of the water. Using the Rene sequencer I attempted to program the tune ‘Dŵr yr Afon’ and was able to draw out frequencies and guide the water into the shape of that melody, mixing in additional resonance, echo and reverb as well as the source material of the water. With a selection of water sounds in the sampler, the master clock, driving the echoes and the sequencer, was in turn taking its lead from the length of loop playing.
Water connects us all and everything.
I cant help feeling that we should observe the proliferation of words from millennia of observations, interactions and experiences of these fundamental parts of our world. Surely they act as indicators of how important they have been and still are, to our human and societal development.
Reflections on the river (Afon 2019)
Over the last year, while working with Maynard and Afon,
I have limited my time on the project to when the sun is passing through one of the 3 water signs and taken the mode of each as a guide to consider and collect different kinds of material.
The process began with a walk down the river Pibydd with the sun in the sign of Cancer. The size and nature of the river seemed to express something of the cardinal mode.
While the sun was moving through Scorpio in 2023 we walked in the woods around Fynnone, perhaps Pluto was watching. The still deep waters of the lake inspired an idea to POOL a collection of sounds and I invited the other Afon artists to select vinyl from my collection to become a resource for a new improvised mix.
With the Sun in Pisces this year I spent some time with the confluence of the river Mwldan into the Teifi and the merging of Nant Duad and Nant Hafren near Castell Henllys. I gathered some material and had an idea to MERGE, to explore ways of bringing together different sound making practices.
When the sun returned to Cancer I returned to MERGE and also looked closer to home to explore the Mwldan in more detail. Taith Afon Mwldan was the result and started to explore ideas of containment and control.
During my time with Afon this November the Sun will be in Scorpio. I plan to explore and record some of the hidden parts of the river. To bring together material gathered over the last year and explore its potential once contained and displaced
More works and posts https://thefoundofmusic.co.uk/?s=afon
The river Mwldan is a tributary to the Teifi in the town of Aberteifi / Cardigan in west Wales. Starting in the north it runs the length of the town on the western side before joining the Teifi a little way downstream from the old bridge.
Historically the Mwldan was an important part of the industry of the town powering mills along it’s journey before reaching town and being put to use by a variety of industries and traders over the years. These days it is largely overlooked and unseen but it continues to provide a slender and valuable channel of natural habitat for all kinds of wildlife.
I recorded with a hydrophone on all of the crossing points of the Mwldan, edited and layered in the soundtrack of the video above to include the machine noise and mechanics of handling and movement, blending the natural and man made sounds to reflect the natural and unnatural course of the river.
I was recently watching a pair of swans on the Teifi. They swam into the culvert entrance on the Teifi and went under the car park to emerge onto the Mwldan a couple of minutes later. A strange moment walking across the car park knowing there were swans swimming underneath!
Walking upstream the next crossing is the footbridge at Lower Mwldan which used to be a drawbridge. ‘The Old Sail Loft’ buildings have been used for various things over the years, storage for a long time and a Ceredigion Council run training centre for a while before its recent change to arts space and print studios.
After the footbridge the river Mwldan disappears from sight as it runs behind what was once a timber yard and then storage for Furney’s Amusements. For quite a while the open sided sheds could be seen through the gates, full of old fruit machines, pool tables and the like. When the yard changed hands some years ago they sold off all that, I regret not buying the boxes of old jukebox records still marked up with the pubs they had been in.
As we move further upstream the terrace continues to obscure the river before the culvert begins at the back of the old amusement arcade and the river opens up again just before Bath House Rd Bridge.
Moving further upstream the river has 2 more bridges in quick succession for yet another car park and access to Mwldan buildings.
From there the Mwldan meanders through a low lying area with no public access before the final bridge in town on Gwbert rd.
POOL is a beginning, the starting point for a stream.
Afon artists are invited to browse a database of vinyl records and select a track or album to create a sonic POOL from which samples will flow and LOOP to become a stream.
Forming in the fixed water sign of Scorpio, POOL suggests the start of a journey into hidden otherworlds. Moving into and immersion in the POOL takes us into the unknown, a place where real and unreal worlds interact, where both become fluid memory and noise is the only true reality..
The POOL starts to form with these selected records :
Joni Mitchel – Clouds;
Johnny Cash – Big River;
Top of the Pops Artistes – Float on;
Neil Diamond – Walk on Water;
Johnny Cash & Marty Robbins – Cool Water
The found of music 