Sonic Portraiture
I define these works as sound pieces that evoke the essence of a place, event, person or experience. The pieces are constructed using site specific field recordings. The raw captures are deconstructed and manipulated in the studio. Selected sounds are then arranged (occasionally with the addition of archival recordings, prose or instrumental music specifically written for the work) into compositions. They highlight the often overlooked importance of aural information in our understanding of our visually saturated surroundings and histories.
Tuscany Experiments August 2025
Throughout August 2025 I had the amazing fortune to live in Montegiovi, Tuscany to work on a series of field recording experiments and collect sounds to produce a long format work when the residency finished. This residency is the result of a partnership between Cultivate Projects (USA) and The Salamanca Arts Centre (Australia) and is awarded to a Tasmanian writer or musician annually. Montegiovi is a small town in the south of Tuscany. It has no shops or bars except for a Pizzeria which made it the ideal location for deep immersion into the landscape and my practice completely free of distraction. It was incredibly beautiful, rich in history, slow paced and connected to the other towns in the region by a great public transport system.
Field recordings were captured each day around the town and surrounding area then experimented with at night. My usual tools such as tempo and pitch shifting, reverb, tremolo and stretching were replaced with a suite of tools I never use - in particular distortion envelopes, hi pass filters, compression and parametric eq.
By the end of the residency I had produced 20 little Sonic Portraits that focused on both the geography and history ofd the many beautiful local towns and natural world that surrounded them.
Whistling with the Dogs of Mount Amiata
The final work from the La Baldi Residency
An ode to the dogs that call out from all across the valley where I am staying in Montegiovi. They have been my sonic companions
All sounds here (melody, texture, harmony, percussive sounds etc) are made from a field recording of the dogs in the valley below my balcony... well except for my whistle : )
I am truly thankful for this opportunity that has been provided for me by the Salamanca Arts Centre in Tasmania and Cultivate Projects/La Baldi residency in Italy and The USA.
And of course the wonderful people of Montegiovi !
Sardinia 2024
Had the opportunity to spend 4 weeks in Milis on the Western side of Sardinia in Septmeber 2024. A truly amazing place. Shared time with half a dozen other artists and the local community working on the theme of “ The Sea”. My accomodation and studio was on a farm just out of Milis where I would divide my time between walking the land with Poldo the dog, visiting the coastline ( about 20 km away) and participating in some great workshops and travel with the residency group . The Sonic portraiture work here became a long format piece combining field recordings presented live with improvised Bass Guitarh at Casa Bagnolo as part of AMACI Giornata del Contemporane. Tittled Conversazioni Difficili con il Mare.
Paris 2023/24 Cities and Memories Global Sound Project
Cities and Memory is one of the world’s biggest sound projects, covering 130 countries and territories with more than 7,000 sounds and more than 2,000 contributing artists.
With the aim of remixing the world, one sound at a time, thousands of field recordings are reimagined by our global community of sound artists and musicians to create an entirely new form of listening.
I have been a member of Cities and Memories for manyy years and provided a few sonic portraits of different spots for different projects. These are a couple of examples from Paris
"Cimetière Père LaChaise is the world’s most visited cemetery. Over 3.5 million visitors a year come to see the graves of artists, musicians, dancers, scientists and politicians. This mecca for the deceased made me think about what it must be like for the spirits of the cemeteries famous inhabitants. Their fame during life has followed them into death, never escaping the public fascination and invading their privacy for eternity.
"With this whimsical thought I created The Famous Never Rest Whilst We Stare At The Graves. I used the original field recording of crowds walking and chatting at the graveyard and mixed this with a track (also made from the field recording) of the resident spirits gently moaning.
"The sounds of the crowd slowly grow, drowning out the spirits until eventually BOOM the gates are shut, the day is over and the ghosts are free! Their tone changes, they sing and eventually dance and celebrate as a jazz tinged track fills the air."
"Whilst any tourist guide to Paris will inevitably point to Sacré Coeur as a ‘top ten must see’ location, both the experience of the visit and the history of the site are worlds away from the grace, beauty and spirituality promised by the online guides.
"To reach Sacré Coeur it is impossible to avoid the crowded tourist markets offering all manner of cheap souvenirs, over priced food and dubious street entertainment. The church itself, whilst being a glorious example of 19th century Romano-Byzantine inspired architecture, is stripped of any real reference to its purpose by the crushing crowds, signage and noise.
"One hundred and fifty years after it was built it’s now a theme park without the flashing lights and rides.
"This sonic portrait is an expression of the visitor experience and the chequered history (full of political revenge, repression, uprising and death) of the site utilising field recordings of the surroundings streets and the grounds of Sacré Coeur, samples of the churches incredible grand pipe organ ( currently in desperate need of repair), a religious mass including grand pipe full choir and sounds of Parisian riots long associated with the site. The echoes of reverence and submission mix chaotically with anarchic voices, forgotten ghosts and the chatter of everyday
travellers searching for authentic experience amongst the mundane reality of the 21st century tourism."
Italy 2018 - 2022
Have explored the sounds of Italy numerous times travelling to all corners of this beautiful country. These are few exaples of soe of pieces produced over the years.
Paris 19th Arrondissement 2020
A small suite of woks done on a quick trip to Paris to see my partner who was on residency. We were staying in the 19th for a couple of weeks so I explored the local sounds