A walk to the shoreline near Winterton on Sea, Norfolk, UK with crashing waves and a very light breeze sets the scene with the natural soundscape of the sea – an exercise in listening offering a sonic meditation,followed by a contrasting freeform environmental improvisation on seven of the nine old black painted wooden fishermen’s sheds on the sand dunes nearby. Through the agency of touch, caress and forms of gentle - sometimes firm - contact, the varied sounds of these prominent wooden ‘guardians of the dunes’ are released offering their unique sonic signatures.
Notes on the improvisation.
The improvisation was performed with my bare hands using only found surfaces and objects at the location and recorded in a single unrehearsed take. As with all environmental improvisation, the relationship of the artist to the sounds released from the environment by personal intervention is an intense experience of profound transcendence. Central to this form of environmental performance is the experience of physical contact, of touch and caress of objects – a form of ‘sacred communion’ with our physical world and the resulting sounds are sacred emissions of vibration…
With the passing of time, the listening experience now is different to the listening experience both during the environmental performance and for some time after the actual recording was made (2014) when I had a memory of the details of my performance. At this time of writing (2026) I have no significant visual memory of the details of the improvisation so the sonic reality of the recording is perceived as a pure sound entity, rather than a visual memory accompanying the sound of performing the various wooden sheds and other objects found at the location. This is obviously akin to the sonic experience of a listener to the work.
What struck me deeply was the intense realisation of the unique experience and perception of what I refer to as the ‘soundbody’ of the elements performed - a transcendence of vibration emanating from those sheds being transformed into a unique acoustic reality experienced as a communion with the ‘sacred emissions of vibration’ and not merely the ‘sounds of’ the sheds'...
Recorded in binaural stereo using custom modified in-ear DPA 4060 microphones. Please listen using headphones for a full surround sound experience.
- Dallas Simpson, 2026
This work is licensed under a BY-NC-SA 3.0 Creative
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