This
soundscape composition takes the listener back to a
time a century ago when large steel ships were built
in enclosed slips, and rich metallic resonances rang
out. These larger than life sounds reflected the sheer
volume of the ships themselves that dwarfed those who
were building them. However, just as the piece
progresses and ends, these soundscapes now have become
increasingly distant memories, only to be re-imagined in
museums.
Original recordings from the World Soundscape Project Tape Collection, recorded at a shipyard in Caraquet, New Brunswick in 1973. Sound processing realized with Soundhack convolution and Chris Rolfe’s MacPod software, with spatialization created by Harmonic Functions’ TiMax2 matrix mixer, marketed by Outboard Inc (UK).
Earth and Steel was premiered at the 2013 Acoustic Ecology Symposium at the University of Kent, Chatham, UK, on the grounds of the Royal Naval Dockyards where ships and submarines were built and repaired for many centuries.
Earth and Steel is available on the Cambridge Street Records CD, The Elements and Beyond.
Original recordings from the World Soundscape Project Tape Collection, recorded at a shipyard in Caraquet, New Brunswick in 1973. Sound processing realized with Soundhack convolution and Chris Rolfe’s MacPod software, with spatialization created by Harmonic Functions’ TiMax2 matrix mixer, marketed by Outboard Inc (UK).
Earth and Steel was premiered at the 2013 Acoustic Ecology Symposium at the University of Kent, Chatham, UK, on the grounds of the Royal Naval Dockyards where ships and submarines were built and repaired for many centuries.
Earth and Steel is available on the Cambridge Street Records CD, The Elements and Beyond.
 Site of the premiere at the Chatham Dockyards, Kent, UK |
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Sound Example availableA detailed documentation of the entire work, its sources, processing and multi-track mixing scheme is available on the WSP Database(truax@sfu.ca for guest access), as well as the 8-track soundfiles for performance.
