England Expects … (Aotearoa), installed in Ngāmotu / New Plymouth in 2015
Contact microphones on the tips of fishing rods turn each line into an aeolian harp. Their eerie siren songs offset the day’s UK shipping forecast, looped and broadcast from one of the speakers on the solar-powered suitcase. Meanwhile a violin piece, composed (in response to both forecast and ‘harps’) and played by violinist Alison Blunt of the London Improvisers’ Orchestra, issues from the suitcase’s other speaker.
In England Expects … Aotearoa, a response to this very British installation – a karakia (incantation), spoken in te reo Māori by Jo Tito – comes from the land.
This work contains elements of past (violin), present (aeolian fishing lines) and future (shipping forecast).
The musical composition binds the two less predictable sonic inputs, while the fishing lines anchor the ‘tone’ of the work in real time. The sonic output varies over time as the lines respond to tide height and wind strength, while a hint of things to come is ever present in the shipping forecast. The system is powered by the sun.
Thanks to Matt Saunders in London for his great work recording and mixing.
karakia