Rain choir

rain choir is a practice-based research project exploring the relationship between place, sound and memory. Originally commissioned as a sound installation for Winchester Cathedral by 10 Days Winchester (2013), the project has been developed as a published sound-work (Impulsive Habitat, 2015), live performance, radio broadcast and a peer reviewed article published on-line (Wolf Notes, 2019). The piece is composed from field-recordings of rain falling through the gutters of Winchester Cathedral, these paranormal voices are combined with dissolves of limestone, taken from the Cathedral crypt. These dissolve releases cretaceous voices in the form of ancient effervescent CO2.
The research has been disseminated through peer reviewed papers presented at conferences and art festivals. In the published article the relationship of sound and in particular water is discussed in relation to a ‘dynamic model’ of memory as posited by Israel Rosenfield: ‘We understand the present through the past, an understanding that revises, alters and reworks the very nature of the past in an on-going, dynamic process.’ (Rosenfield, 1992)

The two versions presented in this on-line publication are the original choir and a recital of the work based on the original field-recordings and others made during its installation in the crypt.