Call To Ritual

This piece came to fruition during the days of lockdown over zoom. Three artist; myself, Sue Barclay and Rosalind Blake, sitting in three of the furthest away corners of the UK from one another. One in Lewes, one in Glasgow and one in North Uist, yet miraculously connected via the powers of the internet (hooray!). We spoke of art and emotion, the power of grief and of ‘One World’ the title of Sue’s current body of work. One world, all connected, all feeling, all being. The topic of conversation being even more poignant in the present moment. 

Each of us aimed to create work that would be shown, watched, spoken and listened to at Sue’s 'One World’ Exhibition at Nicolls Gallery in Glasgow at the end of November. 

When artist Sue Barclay (who also happens to be my mother) sent me her work, I instantly resonated with the painted sheets of paper she was using to build her collage series. The depth of colour and movement of the brush strokes evoked memories of the Scottish lochs and seas I grew up visiting and playing in. I could instantly see the organic forms on the page start to move in my mind, beginning to come to life. 

This concept of play also became an important one while I created my own work. The idea that there is a right and wrong way to make music has always felt very constricting for me, and there have been many times that I’ve allowed that feeling to completely strangle my creativity. However, for this piece I gave myself free reign, both with the visuals and sound, to play with the technology and recording techniques, letting loose with all the tools at my disposal. It is incredible, the soaring feeling of complete joy and freedom that comes with giving yourself fully to childish play. It was so wonderful to stand on the quiet Brighton beach, where I made my recordings. Listening, watching, breathing. 

During our discussions the concepts of Soul, Cell, Seed and Self became running themes and later went on to become the title of the written work Rosalind created in response to our collaboration. These are also ideas that you can see in my own work. The painted pages turn into organic life matter, cells merging, mind bending, worlds turning, oceans forming and swelling. I used my editing skills on Premiere Pro to manipulate the painted paper, orchestrating movement, ebbs and flow with adjustment layers, visual effects and scaling. 

I wanted this piece to immerse the audience, as if they were submerging themselves into the painted pages of Sue’s work. I used a wide variety of recording techniques to help me capture and evoke this sense. From binaural microphones, to recording underwater landscapes with a hydrophone and then layering, panning, bending and shaping the sonic structure of the sounds captured. All these techniques helped me to create a 360 degree soundscape which really does come at you from all angles.  

I have used a range of different voices throughout Call to Ritual, including a sample of a vocal improvisation workshop I attended, lead by the very talented Sharon Gal. The specific clip used, is from a moment when the group improvisation morphed into a very choral and harmonic (but also with beautiful moments of dissonance) sounding collective voice. The product that emerged was a haunting and stunning ambient vocal sound which I knew I needed to utilise and that would fit perfectly with the piece. This moment reflects on ‘One World’ and the coming together of strangers, creating a collective voice, working together, becoming one, yet all individual and unique in their sound and timbre.

The lyrics from a song in my discography called ‘Swim Home’ make an appearance toward the second half of the work. ‘Home’ in this instance not being a physical space, but as a feeling within ourselves. One which is always with us, yet which we often struggle to locate. We navigate the dark waters of our emotions, through the storms and struggles and moments of realisation and clarity. As the sound and visuals weave into one another, we see Sue’s final collages appear reflecting the moments of clarity on our search for ‘Home’. 

During the process of making ‘Call to Ritual’ I invited friends from around the world to choose their favourite lyrics from ‘Swim Home’ and to send me recordings of the words that connected with them the most. From Scotland and England to France and Israel, it was beautiful to bring together these voices, focusing back on ‘One World’.

I hope that my piece takes you on a journey, that you will allow yourself to follow me as we dive deep into the darkness of emotions and spaces that are often forgotten and untravelled. That you find ideas, feelings and emotion that you can resonate with and that you can find comfort in knowing you are not alone. We are all ‘One World’. 

Watch ‘Call to Ritual’ here.