Twinkle to Stretch

The piece is made using images of tree scars and branch fall photographed locally in the woods where I walk. These images were scanned and converted to synthesised sounds, which were then stretched, manipulated and interspersed with field recordings of bird song captured in nearby woodland.

I wanted the piece to represent that feeling of aloneness and the calmness generated through our proximity to trees through the chemical compounds that they transpire. These sounds transmute into sensations of mystery, foreboding and sometimes fear. The tree scar imagery is intended to work two fold. The flaws themselves are beautiful and actually add to their uniqueness and character but they also serve as reminders of the journeys we go through and the scars we pick up along the way. Trees communicate through interconnected root systems and the sounds that these scans produce are almost choral, like the voices of the trees themselves, evoking that feeling of majesty whilst walking through ancient woodland.

An audio soundscape created in response to Clare Archibald’s call out for contributors to her sound installation ‘if trees were lone women, what would they sound like? Created and curated for Sanctuary 2021, Clare invited women to be heard in the form of words, sound and music from 17 identified trees within a star shaped ‘Lone Women Wood’. ‘Twinkle to Stretch’ is my response to the question posed in the call out and encapsulates how I feel as a lone woman going into the woods.

A musical interlude developed under the guise of claro correcto, for The Dark Outside FM: A 24 hour transmission of unheard music broadcast at SANCTUARY 2021, curated by Stuart McLean aka Frenchbloke.

‘music for photons’ was written for a light in my darkest of times.  Inspired by the dark skies of the Galloway Forest where it would be broadcast, the piece uses the concept of photons released from the surface of stars; visible wavelengths traversing the vacuum of space.  

Made from scanned images of refracted light sources, the sounds were heavily compressed to convey distance and the sensation of the piece being transmitted from space.  The main looped choir sequence is intentionally reverent.  A call for trust and bravery, like a chorus of sirens singing from a sea of stars, mingled with Close Encounter-like bleeped retorts. The static clicks at the end of the loops, retained as a distinct nod to the cyclical nature of things and the nostalgia of historic space communication recordings.