Quiet City

2022

fixed medium - 8 channel

12’12”

Commissioned by:

sonADA

Quiet City was written in response to a commission from sonADA (Sonic Arts Days in Aberdeen) to create a piece for the Under the Skin project.

I crowdsourced, via social media, details of a number of locations in Aberdeen where the sound had changed since before the restrictions put in place in 2020 to slow the spread of COVID-19. I received a varied and interesting selection of suggestions, but also some quite perceptive reflections on what those changes meant to people on a personal level and how, sometimes, these presented challenges for others. A good example of this is the pedestrianisation of part of Union Street which, for many, brought a welcome place to dwell and enjoy the calm of a relatively quiet place; however, the lack of access to this part of Union Street by buses meant a longer and more inconvenient journey to the shops for those with mobility issues, as well as providing an environment for the new danger of fast-moving food delivery cycles.

Quiet City is an immersive concert piece, using recordings from these locations, which moves from recognisable (and some unrecognisable) soundscapes through non-real world transformed soundscapes reflecting on a sonically changed city and how we relate to it.

With grateful thanks to the following, for the use of their sounds:

Heitor Alves, Ian Booth, Christine Cameron, Bea Dawkins, Sheila Gordon, Fraser Lovie, Kathleen McBride, Robert McColl Millar, Lorna Philip, Bruce Scharlau, Anne Shipley, Jenny Shirreffs.