Tellurian Voices; Do you Receive?

Monika, Raul, Joanna, Harvey, Nathaniel, Kiro, Elliot, Steve, Jiachen, Buki, Jake

A collaboration of skill, thought, and expression from Sound Arts BA1 Group A, exploring the art of broadcasting. 

This project both excited and challenged me. Having the opportunity to experiment and showcase my work on radio was enticing. Alas, this is where the project became challenging for not only myself. Having an eleven-person group project is very difficult to maneuver during tier four lockdown due to Covid-19. Our group meetings were beneficial and refreshing to share ideas and conceive this piece, but only about six of us showed up each time. Everyone was equally lost on what to do or how to move forward with our assigned roles due to the difficulty of communication during this period. However, we still came together with a finished piece.

I claimed the roles of composer, voice-actor, and assisting with post-production. In a previous group meeting, we all agreed on the idea of remaining somewhat elemental in our work and our writings, henceforth, ‘Tellurian Voices’. When I began working on my composed piece (titled ‘Winds, Change’) After my previous brief, I feel much more comfortable in the field of sonic world-building. From this, I had somewhat of a vision of being in the desert at night (similar to a spaghetti western film) and imagined the strings of the guitar were stirring wind and the dust. Though I do not own a bass guitar, I have an electric guitar and with my DAW, I took the octave down and played like a bass, though the vibration and depth are not quite the same. The long drone sounds behind the guitar are the same strings ran, through a delay pedal and mixed on Ableton. I also referenced back to another Ana Roxanne piece that layers the guitar and vocals in a way I have never heard. In this current draft, I am working on, it plays out much darker than I anticipated but it has a mood I enjoy. In terms of the whole fourteen minutes, we split into two different sections, an ambient intro with one written piece, leading into a melodic outro by other group members, containing another poem. For my written piece, I kept to the elemental theme and wrote about deliverance and release, meeting a similar vibe to Buki’s piece. I envisioned almost the opposite of what my Sonic piece contained, a lush green garden amidst a well that provides and nurtures the whole of the garden.

‘the well is where I pour all I feel
a peace broken again and again
Deep in the earth
Deep in the dirt
Pushing further down to conceal
Beneath the soil is my heart
a root taken again and again
Under the mud
Under the sand
Waiting to be picked apart
Unearth
Dug up
Excavate
Rebirth
Sending further on and on
Paths twist and shift forward
Deliverance
Deliverance
Finally withdrawn’

In another scenario, I wish I could have exited this brief with a more consistent, inclusive piece. The two pieces I contributed I am proud of, but I wish I could have been able to physically work with more of my group members, but our circumstances prevented that. Finding the will and inspiration to work during a pandemic is trying, but with this broadcast my group and I have pulled together, I believe we rose to the challenge.

“Spaghetti Westerns: Bounty Hunters, Bullets and Blood Money.” Calgary Cinematheque, calgarycinema.org/spaghetti-westerns. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.

Roxanne, Ana. “Take the Thorn, Leave the Rose.” YouTube, 12 Nov. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg2Fwcj8oQs. Accessed 2 Feb. 2021.