A leading music scholar at the University of Aberdeen is set to embark on an innovative project to capture the acoustics of the distinctive culture and traditions of North East Scotland.
Dr Pete Stollery, Senior Lecturer in Music at the University of Aberdeen , is a composer and sound artist, who is passionate about sound and the way we experience sound in a visually orientated 21 st century society.
His one-year project, entitled Gordon Soundscape, begins in January 2005 and will explore responses to our aural environment, our sense of belonging to a particular place, and our ability to remember through sound.
Funded by Gordon Forum for the Arts, Gordon Soundscape, will essentially be a piece of aural cinema about the Gordon District, through recording sounds that are associated with it.
Dr Stollery said he was delighted to have secured the funding to get his unique project off the ground. He said: “I am looking forward to creating an eclectic mix of sounds from across the Gordon area and I'm grateful for the support and encourage from Gordon Forum for the Arts.
“Through my music and the focussing in on sound objects, my intention is to make listeners more aware of their own immediate sonic environment.
“I intend to make a large number of field recordings in the Gordon district. Some of these will be my own response to living here and will include aural environments that are personal to me; some will be recordings made as a result of interviews with people of all ages from all over the Gordon district.
“The sounds will reflect the character of the area and its people and will include language, accent, stories, rivers, forests, stone circles, rocks, stones, people, and animals.”
Early next year, Dr Stollery will gather the various sound materials and interviews that he needs to progress with the project, before work begins on a sound installation, which will run for four weeks in Monymusk in September 2005. This will consist of an immersive sound environment using sounds from the area, accompanied by text giving details of how the project was developed.
This will be followed by the preparation and launch of a website, which will be an interactive environment where a web version of the piece can be downloaded as well as other recordings of particular environments. Users of the site will also be able to access an interactive sound map of the area, accessing recordings of these ‘soundspots' by clicking on them. There will also be detailed advice on how users can download sound files to create their own music using the recordings made for the project.
Gordon Soundscape is due for completion in October 2005, when a concert piece will be premiered, possibly in one of the auction pens at Thainstone Mart, along with other music concerned with a ‘sense of place'.
Working exclusively with recorded sound rather than with hi-tech synthesisers, Dr Stollery regards the humble microphone as his instrument.
He said: “I search for sounds that interest me and I capture them through recording. I then work directly with these sounds, using computer-based sound transformation and assembly software.”
Finally, he transfers the sounds onto CD and performs the piece over a multi-channel loudspeaker system.
“This way of working directly with sound is similar to that of sculptors or potters working with their materials. The ability to manipulate material at this basic level is a central aspect of my music.”
His work also has similarities with the process of filmmaking as he shoots sounds on location before editing them in a studio and finally projecting them in a space.
Charles Barron, Chairman of Gordon Forum for the Arts, said: “ We are delighted to be able to commission a composer and musician of Pete Stollery's standing in the community. His project is innovative, exciting and firmly rooted in Gordon district.
“It pleases us very much that it will reflect both the physical environment and the people of our area.”
For further details on Gordon Soundscape , e-mail Dr Stollery at p.stollery@abdn.ac.uk . Further details on his work can be found at www.petestollery.com .