Leading composer and sound artist Professor Pete Stollery is bringing the sounds of Aberdeen to a four-day festival that will transform the city's streets next month.
The Wonderland festival taking place from Thursday 8 September will feature art, dance, music and sound installations, as well as free performances popping up across the city centre.
Among the 22 performances due to take place is ‘Aberdeen SoundPark’, a free event which has been devised by Professor Stollery as a way of showcasing the richness and variety of the city’s sonic and musical landscape.
This will include recognisable noises of Aberdeen including church bells, ship horns, and seagulls, as well as specially composed music played by local brass players.
Taking place over 30 minutes at three different city centre locations, it is described as a “theme park of sound” by Professor Stollery, who is Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music at the University of Aberdeen.
He said: “I want to explore the richness and variety of the sonic and musical landscape of the city, as well as provide an uplifting celebration of its spaces.
“SoundPark will provide an immersive sonic experience mixing recognisable sounds of Aberdeen with music and words reflecting Aberdeen’s past and present and displaying the lived experience of the diverse community of Aberdonians.”
Professor Stollery explained that the celebration of Aberdeen’s spaces was in part motivated by the experience of the pandemic and its effect on the city and its people.
He said: “As our daily lives recover from the pandemic, I hope the people of Aberdeen will gain a positive sense of well-being from this “sounding” of their city, following this strange and uncomfortable period of time, when access to spaces was restricted and a sense of identity challenged.”