Granite Sound

2015

Commissioned by:

National Theatre of Scotland

Granite Sound is a one-­hour guided sound walk with accompanying radiophonic soundtrack listened to over headphones. A number of locations, or dwelling points, are joined together to create the walk, which reflects aspects of granite and the history of Aberdeen through sound, along with themes of excavating and exporting. The walk begins on Belmont Street (AB10 1JR) and moves via Union Terrace, Guild Street, Union Square, Market Street, Victoria Bridge and Walker Road to the final location at Walker Road Primary School in Torry.

Conceived by Pete Stollery, and featuring extracts of choral music by Phillip Cooke along with poems and text from writers Wayne Price, Sheena Blackhall and Helen Lynch, the sound files are triggered via GPS, dependant on the location of the walkers. Each walk has a number of dwelling points where walkers pause and contemplate their location both visually and aurally.

Granite Sound was commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland and launched on 7th/8th November 2015 as part of GRANITE!, a year long celebration of Aberdeen and its connection with granite.

The sound walk can be accessed using the SonicMaps platform here.