pierscape

Garishly lit and reaching out into the sea, the image of the pier is ubiquitous in media coverage of Brighton. The architecture of this Victorian consumerist monument offers an unusual sonic lens, focused not only on the structure and activities of the pier itself, but on the surrounding natural environment and ecology.

Using a range of recording methods we have documented the sounds of the underbelly of the pier after hours: its pillars and pipes rooted deep into pebbles and seawater; its wooden boards and metal fencing straining against wind and waves. The piece combines these hidden sounds with the more familiar sonic palette of the pier: the chaos of the arcade machines, the clinking of coins in metal trays, the whoops and shrieks of seagulls against commercial music pumped through tinny speakers, the sound of maintenance work in keeping the pier standing.

Visually, the pier conjures immediate and straight-forward connotations: ice-cream, donuts, arcades, starlings, and sunny days on Brighton beach. Sonically, however, it is an alien, an unknown, an 'other' so distinct from its marine environment. It is a site of conflict: bird-life fighting for scraps of food with unwitting tourists; electronic arcade machines yelling out for our attention, all the while the sea persistently trying to drag this metallic structure back down under the waves.

Composed with Pete Myson
31/01/2020 - Acoustic Ecologies Festival , Attenborough Cenre for the Creative Arts