Sound - Gwen Sion

'Dyfroedd Pell' was composed specifically for underwater sound installation and musical hydrotherapy sessions. The piece was commissioned by charity Liquid Vibrations as part of the Arts Council England funded project Liquid Listening which supports children with special educational needs and disabilities through musical hydrotherapy sessions touring SEND schools across the UK between May and September 2022.

'Ghostlands' was composed as part of HS2 Ghostlands: a multi-disciplinary arts project created in response to the climate emergency and HS2, highlighting issues of deforestation, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. This project is the result of working on location at 18 specific sites over a 5-month period collecting field recordings and conducting extensive research into HS2 and its environmental impact (the permanent destruction of 108 ancient woodlands and wildlife habitats). The final outcome of the project includes a digital archive of recordings in the form of an interactive sound map, a set of musical instruments hand-built by recycling natural materials found at the locations and an experimental musical composition titled 'Ghostlands'. 'Ghostlands' combines all the environmental audio recordings of the locations with original musical compositions created in response to the spaces using found natural materials as instruments as well as original vocal, multi-instrumental and electronic compositions inspired by reading the shapes, colours, textures and structures found in the visual landscape of the woodland as a musical score. Some melodic elements are also inspired by echoing patterns in birdsong heard at the locations and some phrases are directly translated from the birdsong itself by converting the audio data of recordings into midi data which was then assigned the voice of an acoustic piano. The final musical piece uses a mix of traditional acoustic instruments, electronic instruments, vocals, a variety of hardware devices and my own hand-built instruments. By creating instruments from fragments of the landscape such as fallen branches, the musical compositions are not only framed by the sounds of the woodland in the field recordings but are also made from the sites themselves, literally resonating through the dead wood of these locations. The project was commissioned by Sound and Music and the British Music Collection as part of their ‘Climate.Sound. Change.’ call for works made in response to the climate emergency.

Created as part of 'Hearing Landscape', a site-specific project translating 12 Irish landscapes into experimental sound works, produced whilst on residency at Greywood Arts Centre in East Cork, Ireland.

Live improvisations created in response to visual artist George Richardson’s 3D scans of clouds, exhibited as part of a collaborative audio-visual installation.

Commissioned by Ty Cerdd, Wales Millennium Centre as part of CoDI DIY 2021, a development programme for self-taught emerging composers.

Public sound installation work created for a commission by Common Ground curatorial collective (working alongside Juneau Projects as part of 'Surroundings', a project by Invisible Dust in collaboration with Humber Museums Partnership, funded by Arts Council England). This installation was featured alongside the work of five other selected U.K. artists as part of the Common Ground Art Trail, a public exhibition across various locations in North Lincolnshire aiming to highlight issues of biodiversity and wildlife conservation.

Sound and moving image excerpt from sculptural installation. Almost touching considers fragmented or distorted cultural memory and the relationship between sound, landscape and identity. Drawing on Celtic mythologies, rituals and traditions, the work explores processes of excavation and erosion, tensions between industrial and natural worlds, and the sense of displacement and detachment felt during the first Covid-19 lockdowns. The original sound comprises of live improvisations using piano and cymbal, percussion from stones and soil amplified with contact microphones, and the artist's own hand-built instruments including an electronic slate harp made of slate from Bethesda, the quarrying community where the artist grew up. The moving image work is composed of original footage filmed across Wales and Ireland as well as archival footage of the slate quarrying industry in North Wales and the Mari Lwyd (a Welsh folk custom).

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