As part of the 'Working The Tweed' project, I spent a day with James Wyness on the banks of the River Tweed near Coldstream. I brought my fiddle and viola, and a selection of tunes relating to the river Tweed, including a waltz called 'Tweedside', and a 3/2 Hornpipe called 'Go to Berwick Johnny'. James had a selection of recording equipment. We parked up at a secluded site and set off along the riverbank, getting a feel for the place and looking out for places in which we wanted to work. It was a difficult path, with many obstacles, and we found it quite difficult to navigate with all our equipment. We continued walking for a few miles, with a few memorable instances where the path became virtually impassable - at one point we had to scramble up a bank to get to a better path, and in climbing up James dislodged a tree which narrowly missed my head!! Around lunchtime we reached open ground with a fishing hut, and stopped on a makeshift bench to eat and discuss what to do next. On the way we'd identified a couple of sites in which we wanted to work, so we headed back downriver to those sites.
We talked a lot as we walked, sometimes about the environment we were walking through, sometimes about more generally issues relating to the type of work we were doing. We discussed our thoughts about working in the environment, what environmental sound art should or could entail, and about our future plans and ambitions.
We made various recordings along the river, which captured environmental sound and fiddle and viola playing. I allowed my senses to guide my tempo, dynamics and articulation as I played, and in most recordings I moved around, listening to how the environment affected the sound of my instrument. In some recordings James also moved around, and was able to pick up some different acoustic effects to what I could hear.
This session was a development and continuation of some work that James had done with singer Kirsty Law, recording excerpts of various Border Ballads at different locations along the Tweed. To connect my work with hers, I played the tune of one of the ballads that she had sung.
We talked a lot as we walked, sometimes about the environment we were walking through, sometimes about more generally issues relating to the type of work we were doing. We discussed our thoughts about working in the environment, what environmental sound art should or could entail, and about our future plans and ambitions.
We made various recordings along the river, which captured environmental sound and fiddle and viola playing. I allowed my senses to guide my tempo, dynamics and articulation as I played, and in most recordings I moved around, listening to how the environment affected the sound of my instrument. In some recordings James also moved around, and was able to pick up some different acoustic effects to what I could hear.
This session was a development and continuation of some work that James had done with singer Kirsty Law, recording excerpts of various Border Ballads at different locations along the Tweed. To connect my work with hers, I played the tune of one of the ballads that she had sung.
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