I have been creatively engaged with the Afon Dulais river that flows close to my home since 2006; a practice of listening to the river’s shifting seasonal frequencies whilst attempting to materialise these in sound. Immersing myself physically within the river I use the machinic sensitivity of a Fender Stratocaster to allow places of eddy, surface movement and interference in the river’s body to express themselves through the guitar’s strings. I am interested in what I am able to hear and feel in this diffractive, co-generated field and I make binaural recordings that serve as glimpses of this process.
Recently, I was very grateful to have some recent recordings installed in the Lle Celf, Eisteddfod Garreg Las in Llantwd, near to where I live. I enjoyed witnessing people discovering the sound (played through a domed sound shower) and inhabiting their ‘listening bodies’ awhile…
Recordings from 2023 are available here on the album ‘Dulais – the Dark Stream’. Produced by music label East Cape Calling there both a digital download and a limited edition CD with writing and drawings:
https://simonwhitehead.bandcamp.com/album/dulais-the-dark-stream