Aberetwm

Mycelium Manifestation: spore prints

/ Jacob Whittaker / Leave a comment

A great day in Aberystwyth Arts centre for the Aberetwm celebrations. Some lovely conversations with new and old friends. Thanks to everyone who came along and joined in and thanks to Marc and Becca for having us there!

I started off the sounds of the day with recordings made on Aberystwyth beach, the waves led us up onto the prom where voices and gulls joined in with some short loops of cello, bass and viol from the lovely Sianed Jones who’s loopstation I inherited full of memories.
From there we heard the call of Penglais woods where the rich and lively birdsong merged with voices and music from the Arts Centre. The voice of Peter Stevenson and music from Ailsa Mair Hughes, recorded during the Flora exhibition in 2017, evokes and describes the geographic and botanical world of Penglais hill as experienced by John Salter in the 19th Century before being submerged in the drones and loops from vinyl records connected to Aberystwyth.
The Vinyl Mycelium connections resonate, ogham trees adding new layers of connection reaching out to both past and future. Traditional instrumental sounds from Deuair bring us back to the present and merge with loops of the past – a stream begins to flow.

Live stream recorded from the event (apologies for some random level changes)

Above is a horoscope chartwheel for the day in Aberystwyth – this recurs in the live visual mix, rotating and merging with another more artistic impression of the chart drawn up for my collaboration with Jay and Keryl Hodges and the third circle.

The space was also inhabited by the mysterious figure of the mushroom man tending his pods and silently connecting us to a world beyond.

4 photos above by Keryl Hodges https://www.instagram.com/littleappleseed/
4 photos below by Sean Vicary https://www.seanvicary.com

4 photos below by Jo Shapland https://www.instagram.com/joshapland

Mycelium Manifestation – a circle for Aberetwm

/ Jacob Whittaker / Leave a comment

A 6hr performance/sound installation as part of Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s 50th birthday celebration.
We will be in the Arts Centre theatre from 12pm – 6pm on Monday 8th May.

Mycelium Manifestation
Sounds of Penglais emerge from the sea.
Local voices resonate and repeat creating new forests of potential where past and future coincide.
Fragments of the past loop, crackle, hiss and drone from a collection of audio equipment, old record players and vinyl records.

A curious figure (created by Dominic Saha) investigates how nature can adopt its persona by abstracting the sentient qualities found in fungus. He will inhabit the character of Mushroom Man, the protector of curious giant seed pods whose mysterious presence is amplified and animated by the shifting sound score transforming the ritual caretaking into something otherworldly that conveys a converging of something both ancient and futuristic.

Whittaker & friends will manifest to channel the spirit of the mycelium connecting the trees, embracing Venus to explore and connect with the spring energy of Taurus to create a ritualistic soundscape for modern times.
Old and new combine to explore memory, music, repetition, ritual and function.

You are invited to join us in a ritual sound making experiment.
Contribute and connect with voice and vinyl records to conjure a new lost forest world made from symbols of the past to connect with the future.

A Forest of Words – Find out your celtic zodiac tree and record your tree name to help grow a forest, who knows maybe we’ll summon some Dryads

Vinyl Mycelium – Browse a collection of vinyl connected to Aberystwyth and select tracks for the mix. From Datblygu to George Melly, to Cor Meibion Aberystwyth via Laurie Anderson to The Sound of Music and Cor Cantre Gwaelod, the connections are there to be discovered.