Gruyères Bells

2022

fixed medium - ambisonic

5’ 26”

Awards:

Shortlisted - Scottish Awards for New Music 2023

[Gruyères, Fribourg, Switzerland - 16 July 2015]

Gruyères Bells uses a single recording of a herd of Red Holstein cows, carrying bells around their necks. The higher the ranking of the cow in the group, the deeper the bell tone, so there is a huge range in this particular herd. At the same time as enjoying this keynote sound of the area, I am concerned about the damage this is doing to the animals’ hearing and the inevitable tension between the desire amongst certain stakeholders to keep this emblematic sound and the possibility of silent GPS devices doing the same job.

Gruyères Bells forms part of a larger projected album release with Jonty Harrison, consisting of short forms (4 – 6’) made from single field recordings.