The London Ear Drops

Broadcast Friday 15 Jul 2016 at 11:50amFri 15 Jul 2016 at 11:50am

The London Ear Drops is a collection of works based on the specific location of London, where Australian sound artist Colin Black builds a multi-facetted aural geography in which human imprint is present. Constructed from audio recordings collected during his Visiting Research Fellowship with Goldsmiths, University of London and artist residency with Resonance104.4fm (London), this new collection explores notions of interiority through personal thoughts and the inner aspects of place that can be uncovered within exterior sonic environments.

A London Mosaic

In London it is common to see people mud-larking (scavenging for artefacts) in the River Thames during low tide. When I asked a couple from Poland what they were going to do with the artefacts they found, they responded that they were going to make a mosaic that spelt out the word “London.”

17 to Archway

17 to Archway is a bus route that runs from London Bridge to Archway station via Kings Cross station. The low bass frequency from the field recording of inside the 17 to Archway is used as the bass note for the track that is interspersed with Londoner Hannah Brown’s impressions of her home city.

Part of The Environment

Londoner Michael Umney states that, “after a while you don’t really notice the people, because of the fact there’s so many people, they become like part of the environment really … most of the time they are moving and there is so many of them that they don’t differentiate that much from each other. That’s why it’s such a surprise if you catch someone’s eye, or somebody speaks to you … it’s like a bus stop talking to you, because you are so use to them.”

If Inanimate Objects Had Memories: Could This Be Helfgott’s Practice Piano In St Pancras International Railway Station?
At the age of nineteen, pianist David Helfgott won a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London. During his time in London in the late 1960s, Helfgott began showing definite manifestations of schizoaffective disorder. I thought of Helfgot when I sat at the piano in St Pancras International Railway Station and began improvising. What if inanimate objects, like pianos, had memories?

You Can’t See The Horizon
This work interpolates Michael Umney’s claustrophobic view of London with field recordings trapping the spoken word in a dense city soundscape. The idea is to broadly mimic 3D maps of London where the people are in the street and the view is blocked by the buildings.

A Study of A Tree in Regent Park at 6am (the effects of jet lag on an Australian visitor!)
This is a recording made at 6am of a tree in Regent Park that has been treated.

Part of The Joy of Living In A Big City

This Ear Drop begins with the sound of the River Thames and fades into the sound of people walking across the Millennium Bridge. These sounds become heavily filtered to create music, augmented with electronic sounds, setting the scene and mood for Londoner Hannah Brown exclamation, “become whatever I wanted because nobody knew me: that’s part of the joy of moving to a big city.”