Listening for the Warning Notes

Listening For The Warning Notes, is a visual sound ensemble, a day/night performance/sound installation.

It was previewed as a work in progress at our Lady Studio in Borth over two nights in Sept 2022.

After many years creating sound and light installations for after dark shows, I was keen to see whether and how we might create a day time/night time durational sound work/performance. I was joined by long term collaboartor and artist Liam Walsh to realise the show in Borth.

 Warning Notes is a thought provoking and immersive ensemble of sound installations/instruments creating an enveloping soundscape of harmony, trepidation and sonic surprises in response to social and ecological alarm.

It is part sound installation, part performance, played and controlled by the artists over a period 4hrs. It can be experienced in daylight or at night, but ideally it runs from a couple of hours before sunset through dusk and into darkness.

The installations are a combination of kinetic, acoustic and amplified works, which explore the sounds of warning, creating subtle and dense textures of sound, sometimes shocking at other times almost hypnotic. Intriguing and alluring in the daylight with its strange quirkiness and kinetic elements, it becomes a stranger and more intense experience as with the approach of dusk/night, there is a change and the sound becomes more urgent, pushing the note of warning a little harder.

The audience reaction from old and young was very positive, with some people staying for nearly 2hrs.

We hope to secure funding early in 2023 to make this show, and present it at a number of locations around Wales in the Autumn. We will also run a sound workshop element, which will explain the technologies and sound elements within the show, open a dialogue on social and ecological alarm, and an intoduction to field recording and editing. 

"Amazing that ‘Listening for the Warning Notes’ appears to tell a very clear story whilst allowing imaginations the freedom to create their own." Annie Grundy Articulture/Magic Cinema

"There are so many things that should be causing alarm : war, climate change, personal situations and here it was given voice, moving from shaking, brooding sounds to an all out air raid alarm. It was an emotional and beautiful experience." Julie Ann Heskin Articulture