大象传媒

Composer Iain Chambers creates a radiophonic sequence from the huge recording archive of the pan-EU Sounds of Changes project, a collaboration between 6 major European museums to document the huge change within our acoustic landscape.

In this new work, Iain sets up dialogues between the sounds of obsolete industrial technology employed in manufacturing, communications, transport and agriculture, along with domestic sounds from bygone eras.

Iain has worked with this sound archive for a number of years. His hoerspiel for Westdeutscher Rundfunk, 'The Eccentric Press', was a finalist in the 2016 Prix Palma Ars Acustica.

Here, the recordings are presented unmodified, in a through-composed, meditative sequence. We hear weaving looms giving way to typewriters; ticket-printing machines and foundries; obsolete computers and stationary steam engines. These previously-familiar, now long-forgotten sounds transport us back in time, evoking memories, and sometimes demanding consideration as quasi-musical material.

When our era is described to our ancestors, the pace of change will surely rival the industrial revolution. Sound of Changes documents this rapid change, as witnessed by the huge change in the acoustic landscape.

Cast list:

Tower clocks
Quartz clock ticking
Spirit duplicator
Manual cardboard cutter machine
Paper鈥揷utting scissors
Card duplicating machine
Wall clock
Fire department bell
Lynotype line casting machine
Typographical printing machine
Trip hammer
Buttonhole machine
Ticket printing machine
Tumble-wash
Tug boat
Weaving machine
Braiding machine
Shuttle loom
Threshing with hand flails
Sawmill crankwheel
Angel chimes
Automatic telephones
Alarm clock
Pencil sharpener
Camera shutter release
Portable typewriters
Mechanical calculator
Cash register
Horizontal gang saw
Wire weaving loom
Stationary engine
Horizontal milling machine
Loom
Kessel sharpening machine
Floating mill, water wheel
Link bending machine
Pursemaker