Features / eco-arts projects
Sonic explorations: tidal power, urban nature and the city’s acoustic quirks
What sound does your local bridge make? Can architecture double as a musical instrument? How is a bird like a human?
Sound artist Dan Pollard is possibly the one person qualified to answer these questions.
He has been exploring St Philip’s Marsh in unique ways, taking in new sensory perspectives that forge a fresh appreciation of the post-industrial space.
The project, Voices of the Avon Tideway, has yielded surprising results so far he says: “It’s a wild place even though it runs through an industrial landscape, because of the size and power of the tide and how steep the valley is.”
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Recording the dawn chorus with award-winning wildlife sound recordist Ellie Williams, the volume of birdsong was remarkable: “She was surprised to hear certain things, like a willow warbler which is pretty rare in an urban environment. We also caught the traffic and trains and the city waking up.”
Pollard has been using the birdsong to write melodies which he’s inviting people to sing with him at St Mary Redcliffe in July: “If you take a bird and pitch it down it’s amazing how often it will sound like a human singing,” he says. “It’s the same with a human, pitch it back up and it will sound like a bird. The project is making these connections.”
This was just the start of his discoveries focused on the 40-46 Albert Road construction site running next to a tidal part of the River Avon that will soon be home to students as part of the Temple Quarter Development.
Dan Pollard has turned the birdsong of the area into vocal compositions for human voices – photo: Dan Pollard
Experimenting with infrastructure, he found the St Philip’s footbridge produces strange sounds in response to clapping, while hitting nearby pipes creates different notes.
“They go up or down in pitch as you walk along the bridge. Put mics in them and they’re constantly resonating at that pitch,” he enthuses. “It’s a bit of architecture that’s been accidentally designed to work like a musical instrument.”
Pollard explains he has recorded the harmonising pitches that resonate in the footbridge’s drainpipes and used the relief line railway bridge to produce tones, drones, percussive hits and rhythms from which he has built instruments to accompany his makeshift choir.
The work is leading up to a permanent installation of a set of sound mirrors by the riverbank that will amplify natural and urban sounds when people stand in front of them. The same technology was used briefly to preempt approaching enemy planes during WWI – photo: Angel Sherrard
He zeroed in on sound further by working with visually impaired choreographer Holly Thomas and LA-based “world class” echolocator (and president of World Access for the Blind) Daniel Kish.
“He clicks with his mouth and can tell where things are, based on the echoes that come back. Exploring the place with him was fascinating. He could clap his hands and tell us, ‘that wall is x metres away’. It’s been a real ear-opening experience,” said Pollard.
The artist, who has worked on music for broadcast as well as site-specific theatre with Insane Root and installations via his Pervasive Media Studio residency, is keen to pass on his new-found excitement about the area which stems from tidal power, the vitality of urban nature and the area’s acoustic quirks.
Focus groups of people with visual impairments, including the expert of human echolocation Daniel Kish, helped to centralise the aural experience of the area – photo: Angel Sherrard
“The second largest tide in the world flows in and out the city every day but it’s so easy to just not notice it. I’d love for people to tune into the tides and these huge natural processes happening around us.”
He mentions the spikes in birdsong at high tide and the diversity of birds in the city: “It’s about connecting with birds, nature, and remembering we share this space. That helps you to feel at home.
“I didn’t grow up in Bristol but recently I was away for work; when I came back I biked through St George’s park and started hearing birds I recognised and thought, ‘I’m home.’ This project could help the students who are moving in to feel connected to the place and the landscape.
“We’re not pretending it’s this perfect natural space. The nature here exists within the history of the site which is also what’s amazing about it. We want to celebrate all of that.”
Join the Voices of the Avon Tideway choir at St Mary Redcliffe Church on July 11 and 25. Find all information and register to take part at buytickets.at/voicesoftheavontideway/2262096
Dan welcomes any bird recordings from around Bristol which can be explored at these sessions. Send them to him at [email protected]
Main image: Angel Sherrard / @angelscinema
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