A sound work exploring multiple perspectives on water and rivers, the passage of time and the power of water as a primordial element. We hear from the river police who enforce the law on the waterways, a local archaeologist who explores the liminal intertidal zones picking through the centuries of rubbish and debris to make sense of the past and present, divers talking us through the experience and sensations of being submerged beneath the depths and a chorus of voices sharing their fears of water and dreams of drowning.
The piece features interviews with diving instructors at the Plymouth Diving Centre, Archaeologist and Local Historian, John Brown, Inspector Gordon Peters of the Ministry of Defence River Police and dream recollections of staff and patients at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert.

First performed live as part of Sonic Narratives in Timișoara, June 2024, this studio version of the piece is composed for SEMI SILENT in the frame of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES and it was presented in the festival Orizont Sonor in Constanța, September 2024.

*

Mark Vernon is a Glasgow based sound artist who works with found tapes and acousmatic presence. His work explores themes of magnetic memory, audio archaeology, voyeurism and nostalgia. A rich collection of domestic tape recordings; audio letters, dictated notes, home sing-alongs, answer-phone messages and other lost voices often find their way into his unorthodox soundworlds. A keen advocate of radio as an art form, he is the founder of Glasgow art radio station, Radiophrenia. His solo music projects have been published through labels including Kye, Flaming Pines, Persistence of Sound, Entr’acte, Canti Magnetici and Gagarin records.
meagreresource.com

Produced by Mark Vernon. All sounds and voices recorded by Mark Vernon.