Simon Whetham

http://www.simonwhetham.co.uk/

Since 2005 Simon has worked with field recordings, recording environmental sounds during a research trip to Iceland. He visited the Icelandic countryside with three visual artists to gather source material and experience the harsh but beautiful terrain.

The resultant work featured in headphonic installations in Bristol and Southampton, and was also released by Filament Recordings, a netlabel no longer active. However, the work has been rereleased by Earth Monkey Productions, along with a reworked version.

This version was exhibited in the City Hall in Reykjavik as part of the Winter Lights Festival 2007, alongside the work of Kathryn Thomas and Tamany Baker. The work was played through the City Hall's speaker system installed in the ceiling, as well as through a headphonic installation, which formed the central piece of the exhibition. Please visit http://www.adarklight.co.uk/ for more information regarding the exhibition.

In 2006, following the initial visit to Iceland, Simon invested in higher quality recording equipment, and visited the Alps in France and Switzerland. Work resulting from this trip, concentrating on the sounds made by cablecars, was released in 2006 by Entr'acte http://www.entracte.co.uk/, titled 'ascension_suspension'.

During 2006 Simon also worked with sound artist and performer Scanner, assisting him in the studio and implementing the sound pieces for the outdoor performance piece 'Night-Flight', run by Germination (www.germination.co.uk).

2007 saw Simon being invited to participate in the Collision Festival in Peckham, London, where he recorded everyday events in Peckham Library, then composed work based on the recordings for a sound performance. A version of this work is to be released through Lens Records (http://www.lensrecords.com) in 2009.

Also in 2007 he was invited to participate in the Mamori Sound Project (www.malab.net), a two week residency based in the rainforest region of Brazil, run by leading sound recordist Francisco Lopez. His participation was funded by the Arts Council England.

Work resulting from the residency was the basis of sound installations in Bristol, York and Luton, and was performed at various events and festivals, such as Sightsonic (York), Faster Than Sound (Aldeburgh), Venn (Bristol), Sprawl (London) and Das Kleine Field Recording Festival (Berlin). The finished piece was released as a download album through Trente Oiseaux (http://www.trenteoiseaux.eu/) in December 2008.

Also, the recordings have recently formed the basis of a surround sound installation commissioned by Creative Labs, the University of York and SpACE-Net, which was unveiled at the recent AES 35th Audio for Games Conference at the Royal Academy of Engineering, London, and is likely to be hosted by the Eden Project later this year.

Simon's work as a sound recordist also lead him to take part in a short residency in Tallinn, Estonia, in October 2008, where he worked with a group of five performance artists from the UK and Japan as guests of the performance group Non Grata. Work resulting from this trip is to be released on CD by 1000fussler (www.1000fussler.com) and and/OAR (http://www.and-oar.org/) later this year.

Sendungen im ORF KUNSTRADIO:

08.11.2009: "urban sound stories" vol. 1: london





BIOGRAPHIES