Aberdeen

Past

From February to June, 2017, Stolen Voices listened in on Aberdeen. On 30 June, Johanna Linsley and Rebecca Collins along with a group of local agents with their ears on the ground, offered the results of an investigation into the acoustic textures of the city.

Listen to excerpts from the show, including the first episode detailing the sonic investigation of Aberdeen, a stereo version of Pete Stollery’s 8-channel composition, and a set by guest musician the Kitchen Cynics:

CASE NOTES

EPISODE ONE: BRIEFING

Sources:

  1. Brown, Paul and Evans Rob, 23 August 2005, ‘How Rainbow Warrior Was Played Down’, Guardian 

EPISODE TWO: INK WELLS, OIL WELLS AND RIGS

Sources:

  1. Buchanan, Jim, ‘In the School board days 1972 – 1919’, Education In Aberdeen
  2. Mitchell, Timothy, 2011, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, New York: Verso
  3. Shepherd, Nan, 2001, ‘The Living Mountain’ in The Grampian Quartet, Edinburgh: Canongate Books
  4. Shepherd, Nan, 2001, ‘Quarry Wood’ in The Grampian Quartet, Edinburgh: Canongate Books 

EPISODE THREE: NOTHING, RED HERRINGS AND FALSE STARTS

Sources:

  1. Prendiville, Kieran (Creator), 1994-95, Roughnecks, UK, BBC1
  2. Rankin, Ian, 1997, Black and Blue, London: Orion
  3. Baim, Harold (Director), 1981, Telly Savalas Looks at Aberdeen, Harold Baim Film Productions
  4. Home, Stewart, 2003, 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess, Edinburgh: Canongate
  5. Nadel-Klein, Jane, 2000, ‘Granny Baited the Lines: Perpetual Crisis and the Changing Role of Women in Scottish Fishing Communities’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 23.3
  6. Mitchell, Timothy, 2011, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, New York: Verso
  7. Afro-Aberdeen, 27 August 2013, afroaberdeen.wordpress.com, [accessed 30 June, 2017]

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

The Kitchen Cynics

EPISODE FOUR: YOU MIGHT NOT SEE IT, BUT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO HEAR IT

Sources:

  1. Williams, Don and Danny Flower, 1978, ‘Tulsa Time’, Expressions, Label: ABC
  2. Collins, Rebecca and Johanna Linsley, 6 April 2017 Interview with Bernie Morrison (CEO Pangeo Subsea), Aberdeen
  3. Leighton, Tim, 16 June, 2017, unpublished talk ‘The Extraordinary Potential of Bubble Acoustics and Sea Mammals’, Sounding the Sea symposium
  4. Petition from James Davidson to Aberdeen Magistrates, 1797, Aberdeen City New Street Trustees: Prior titles for south side of Flourmill Brae: vendor is James Davidson, merchant to William Kennedy, CA/13/NStT/5/178, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives, Aberdeen Town House

EPISODE FIVE: STOLEN VOICES

Composition by Pete Stollery

EPISODE SIX: POSTCARDS FROM THE ONGOING INVESTIGATION

Sources:

  1. McVeigh, Tracy, 01 January 2017, ‘Dippy’s last days: diplodocus leaves London after 112 years for farewell UK tour’, Guardian
  2. Edwards, Caroline, 15 June 2017, unpublished talk, ‘Deep Sea Science and Literature’ Sounding the Sea Symposium
  3. Department of Trade and Industry, 2002 August, Human Activities in the Sea 3 Area, offshore-sea.org.uk/sea/dev/html_file/pdf2.cgi/TR_015_W.pdf, [accessed 30 June, 2017]
  4. Johnson, Esther, 2002 Hinterland, Blanche Pictures
  5. Caffyn, Alison, 30 March 2009, Destination Plan for Seaham, County Durham Tourism Partnership and Easington District Council
  6. Edwards, Rob, 4 December 2016, ‘Operation Jolly Roger: Inside the secret world of Scotland’s fishermen pirates’, The Herald
  7. ‘Why Bridlington is the lobster capital of Europe’, 13 September 2016, The Yorkshire Post
  8. Gani, Aisha, 4 February 2016, ‘Whale washes up and dies on Norfolk beach in sixth UK stranding in weeks’, Guardian
  9. ‘George Elmy lifeboat returns to Seaham after 51 years’, 24 June 2013, BBC News
  10. Evers, Clifton, 05 May 2017, unpublished talk, ‘Networking the ocean: mediated seascapes and the labour of the professional free surfer’, Oceanic Places Seminar
  11. Wyndham, John, 2008 The Kraken Wakes, London: Penguin
  12. Malone, David, 2009, The Secret Life of Waves, BBC
  13. Olde, Saskia, 2017, Pfui-pish, Pshaw/Prr, Offshore, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull

ABOUT PETE STOLLERY
Pete Stollery composes music for concert hall performance, particularly acousmatic music and more recently has created work for outside the concert hall, including sound installations and internet projects. He has collaborated with practitioners from other artistic disciplines, particularly dance and sculpture. He is Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, delivering courses on the creative applications of technology in music and music education to students, schoolchildren and the general public. In 1996, along with Alistair MacDonald, Robert Dow and Simon Atkinson, he established the group invisiblEARts whose aim is to perform acousmatic music throughout Scotland and to promote Scottish acousmatic music to a wider audience, both within Scotland and abroad. He is Chair and Co-Director of the sound festival, Scotland’s new music festival.

ABOUT KITCHEN CYNICS
Kitchen Cynics is the vehicle for Alan Davidson, compulsive songwriter from Aberdeen. Alan packed in his job at an advanced age to concentrate on making music, much of which is inspired by the history and nature of North-East Scotland. He has self-produced more than 100 albums, and has had music released on labels in Italy, Germany, Greece & the USA. The music itself veers from gentle (but often macabre) folk song to shards of looped noise. He has a new lp due out very soon on Fitlike Records called ‘Apardion’ on which the songs are spun round significant events in Aberdeen’s history.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Stolen Voices is part of the Silver City Stories Programme funded by Aberdeen City Council, the University of Aberdeen and Visit Aberdeenshire, and produced in partnership with Aberdeen Performing Arts. Special thanks go to Lesley Anne Rose for her creative support throughout the process, to Kirsty, Jamie, Dave, Badger and all the team at APA who have made us feel very welcome.

Thank you to a number of people who offered their insight and expertise to the project, including Bernie Morrison (CEO, Pangeo Subsea); Samantha Walton (Lecturer in English Literature, Bath Spa University and author of a forthcoming book on Ecology and Mind in the work of Nan Shepherd); Simone Kenyon (artist); the staff at the Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives at the Town House and Old Aberdeen House, including Ruaraidh Wishart and Phil Astley; and the bar staff at Six Degrees North. Thanks as well to the fantastic artists at the Anatomy Rooms and Seventeen Gallery, and to the members of Youth Media Project at SHMU, who took part in workshops leading up to this work.

Many thanks to Jim Ewen and Kirsty Russell at The Anatomy Rooms; Murray Dawson, Denise Reid, and Lori Wilson at SHMU; John Anderson at 57 Degrees North; Steve Slater at CityMoves; and Ruth Fisher at VisitAberdeenshire for their support in the development of Stolen Voices Aberdeen. Finally, thanks to the many people in Aberdeen with whom we’ve had conversations, and whose conversations we’ve overheard.

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