North Sea Crossing and River Lee Navigation are two pieces based on recordings made crossing the North Sea by ferry and a boat journey on the London River Lee Navigation. Waves, engines, birds, voices, all processed by various degrees to form the composition. Sharp contrast is interchanged with slow evolution, the structure of the piece being informed by both the immediate timbre of the sounds, as well as through the interpretation of abstract external reference to elements such as the changing velocity of the craft, the perceived turbulence of the water, and the opening and closing of locks on the river. These compositional decisions were made freely, mostly in relation to my own memories of each journey.
Themes of motion and transportation motivate these pieces. Certeau’s description of the perceptual distortion occurring in train journeys is especially close to the experience of travel inspiring North Sea Crossing and River Lee Navigation. Between the confined, static space of the train and its hyper-mobile exterior, there resounds:
"a sort of rubbing together of spaces at the vanishing points of their frontier. These junctions have no place…they can only be heard as a single stream of sounds, so continuous is the tearing off that annihilates the points through which it passes."
River Lee Navigation was presented at Roundhouse, London as a part of NetAudioLondon in 8 channel sound. The piece was later presented in 12 channel sound as a part of Sho-Zyg at St. James Hatcham Church, London.
