THE COLOUR OF DISTANCE
The Colour of Distance is an autobiographical journey from London to the Outer Hebrides explored through a unique and original combination of symphonic music and natural sound lasting over an hour in duration.
In it the audience travel through a 3 Dimensional space where the music forms the landscape within which the natural sounds emerge and dissolve around them as the journey unfolds. As the natural sound contained within the score evokes the landscape, so the music itself is an expression of my own experience of these contrastingly different and beautiful environments.
Amidst the raucous cries of market traders in London’s Soho or listening to the plaintive call of a Golden Plover on a windswept mountain, each individual will ultimately create their own vision in response to the immersive Surround Sound audio experience.
The symphony is introduced by the actor John Hurt reading the haunting poetry of John O’Donohue the Irish philosopher and poet . It is performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under the baton of its principle conductor Gerhard Markson. The natural sound was specially recorded by award winning Chris Watson (BAFTA Best Sound David Attenborough’s “Life of Birds”) and Geoff Sample (Collins Bird Guides).
“The Colour of Distance” is an evocative synthesis of sounds and orchestral music facilitated by techniques at the cutting edge of technology. The work was mixed in both stereo and DTS 6.1 surround sound at Abbey Road Studios, London.
The Colour of Distance
Please click on the image to launch the Movie
STAC POLLAIDH FROM COIGACH (Photo: David Ward)
Performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Poetry by John O'Donohue
Read by John Hurt
Filmed by Skyworks
Please click on the image to launch the Movie
STAC POLLAIDH FROM COIGACH (Photo: David Ward)
Performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Poetry by John O'Donohue
Read by John Hurt
Filmed by Skyworks
Mixed and mastered at Abbey Road Studios. London in DTS 6.1 Surround Sound
MOVEMENT ONE
Nelson's Column Trafalgar Square
Natural sounds included in the score:
London Taxi - Thames barge - Routemaster Bus - Big Ben - Piccadilly Circus Tour Guide - Starlings - St Bartholomew the Great - Pigeon Wing Beats - Motor Bike - Car Horns - Tube train - Evening Standard Seller Piccadilly Circus - Strawberry Seller Holborn - Standard Seller Strand - Fruit Vendors Berwick Street Market - Police Siren - Leicester Square Tube Announcement - Greylag Geese - Curlew - Carrion Crow - Swifts - Curlew
MOVEMENT TWO
Ben Damph Scotland (Photo: David Ward)
Natural Sounds: Wind the Outer Hebrides - Ringed Plover - Skylark - Grey Plover - Red Throated Diver - Black Throated Diver - Redshank - Golden Plover - Great Northern Diver - Thunder & Rain
MOVEMENT THREE
The Aran Islands
Natural Sounds: Rain - Blackbird
MOVEMENT FOUR
Comet Hale Bopp over Cumberland
Natural Sounds: Mute Swan Wing Beats - Snipe "Drumming" - Tawny Owl - Corncrake - Osprey - Dunlin - Golden Plover - Redshank - Oyster Catcher - Red Deer - Lapwing - Curlew - Pheasant - Cuckoo
MOVEMENT FIVE
Gannets: RSPB Image Library
Natural Sounds: Waves - Dunlin - Arctic Tern - Oyster Catcher - Herring Gull - Sandpiper - Cuckoo - Redshank - Bumble Bee - Mating Toads - Grasshopper - Ring Ousel - Waves - Cuckoo
MOVEMENT SIX
Berwick Street, Soho (Photo: Mark Thomas)
Natural Sounds: Wind through a window - Distant Tube Announcement - Footsteps Charing Cross - Train over Waterloo Bridge - Roadworks Royal Exchange - Standard Seller Leadenhall Market - Bike Shaftesbury Avenue - Vendor Piccadilly - Road Works City - St Martin in the Fields Bells - voices Leicester Square - voices Wardour Street - pigeons Soho square - vendors Berwick Street Market - prostitutes Brewer Street - walkie-talkie Tottenham Court Road - pimp Berwick Street Soho - tube into Earl's Court - evening Standard seller Charing Cross - street vendor Covent Garden - Westminster Abbey Bells - vagrant Leicester Square - Black Headed Gulls Embankment - Standard seller Leicester Square - Gulls Billingsgate market - gypsy flower seller Leicester Square - Standard Seller Charing Cross - Vagrant Piccadilly Circus - Footsteps the Strand
MOVEMENT SEVEN
Hyde Park, London 1880
Natural Sounds: Big Ben from Embankment Gardens - Song Thrush - Curlew - House Sparrows
MOVEMENT EIGHT
Blizzard, Inverness Shire
Natural Sound: Wind - Red Grouse - Snipe - Curlew
MOVEMENT NINE
The Outer Hebrides
Natural Sound: Skylarks
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE COLOUR OF DISTANCE
Some of the most magical experiences in my life have been associated with sound....not just the sound of music but also the sounds that constitute the experience of being in a certain place.
I was born and brought up in London. It is a city that has it’s own very distinctive sound character and one that I feel I know intimately. But London is changing all the time and many of the noises that I remember as a child, when the once loquacious rag and bone man was still to be heard, and the now ‘mute’ news vendors once shouted their wares, have disappeared completely from the city’s soundscape.
This aspect of change and loss is something I find creatively compelling, and the idea that it might be possible to re-live the experience of being in a certain place at a certain time just by hearing sounds familiar, was central to my inspiration for the Colour of Distance.
In the soundtrack of real life there is one thing that for me surpasses all others......the sound of BIRDSONG. Aside from its ‘musicality’ the beauty of birdsong lies partly in its ability to heighten our awareness of a place....at such times it can, it seems, become the voice of one’s own experience.
Some of the most wonderful moments of my experience have been accompanied by the song of birds. If I could condense years of urban life into one single moment it would be when - as a boy I stood beside my father on a winter’s evening in Leicester Square and listened to the overwhelming noise of thousands of Starlings.
Later I discovered the landscape of my soul in the wild mountains of Cumberland, the Hebrides and the west coast of Ireland. The liberating experience of these places had its own accompaniment, the song of the Curlew, Skylark, Golden Plover...their lyrical and wistful strains encapsulated so perfectly the beautiful landscape that they inhabited.
I saw their inclusion in a musical context as a way of not only re-living those experiences but also of sharing them with a wider audience.
At the heart of this musical journey is the conflict between City and wilderness. It’s a theme that is central to my own life and I know, in today’s ever troubled world, to ever more of us.
In The Colour of Distance the combination of music and sound take the listener through some of the many moods & atmospheres that the different landscapes of our isles have to offer.
A sensation of flight and movement was always with me as I wrote the music for this piece and when I was introduced to the brilliant aerial photographer Richard Mervyn at Skyworks I realized that what he had done not only captured the essence of my inspiration but also the avian perspective.
The idea that we could combine the musical, visual and natural sound elements into one spectacular event in which we could take the audience on our journey suddenly looked like a very exciting possibility! With live orchestral music, spectacular high definition aerial projection, surround sound......we could embrace every element of the senses with the exception of smell!
At this point I approached the wonderful Irish poet/philospher John O’Donohue (who sadly passed away), to write a series of poems introducing each of the nine movements. The beautiful words he created in answer to the piece have been recorded by the actor John Hurt. The symphony was recorded by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland under the baton of its principle conductor Gerhard Markson and was subsequently mixed in DTS 6.1 Surround Sound at Abbey Road Studios, London.
One of the most important issues that I hope to raise through this unique piece is the spiritual importance of birdsong. Allied to the life enhancing richness that their presence offers us, is the great concern that I have for the devastating contraction of their habitat and range. Older generations would have been familiar with many more songs than the present generation will ever be lucky enough to hear; this is one of the greatest tragedies of our times. By way of example how many of us can remember when last they heard the once common harbinger of spring..... a cuckoo?
In The Colour of Distance I hope to inspire a sense of the beauty and wonder of our landscape and an appreciation of the sounds to which it owes so much of its character.
If my own passion for it can contribute in anyway to its protection and preservation then it will hopefully be as worthy as it is entertaining!