What are Sonic Journeys?
Sonic Journeys are soundtracks created for a specific journey. If there's a journey you love this summer, why not create a piece of music inspired by it? All you need is your phone and access to GarageBand or voice recording apps. Once recorded you can then upload it to our Sonic Journeys website for others to experience. www.sonicjourneys.co.uk
As part of REFLECT project we’ve been running Sonic Journey workshops in Bude and Gravesend this summer. Check out workshop leader and artist Tania Holland Williams’ Sonic Journey creating tips below.
1. Release yourself from worrying about how far along the line you are as a sound artist or composer. There is no right or wrong version of the journey you want to capture. The only thing you really need is a desire to communicate your journey through sound and technology that is found on most phones.
2. Consider a journey that you do everyday…
There is something about the accumulative weight of repeating the same journey that might be worth exploring in sound.
3. Some people start a creative sound piece with words, others with sound capture, some with a graphic design, others with a concept for what they are trying to build. It’s worth knowing your preference and trying out a number of different starting points - so that if you do get stuck in the creative process, you will have some other skills to draw on.
4. If you tend to create in a certain style - for example slow moving, calm pieces - set yourself a challenge of going on a journey that is more edgy and trying to capture that discomfort. The more you know about your preferred writing style the more challenges you can give yourself and the more you will grow as a creative.
5. Identify a journey where you have time to listen rather than one where you are with people you like to chat to or where you generally listen to music. We very rarely take time to listen to our world.
6. Listen in different directions - our ears help us by giving us a sense of the perspective and landscape of the world. See how much distance, depth you can hear when you listen up/down; left/right; in front/behind.
7. Set yourself the challenge of using a sound you’ve never used before when you are creating. Even if it ultimately is not the right sound for your piece - you will have added another sound colour to your palette.
YOUR SONIC JOURNEY
For those that would like to create and share their own Sonic Journey, we are inviting online submissions of music, or music and video, to journeys that you find personally inspiring here. Previous Your Sonic Journeys have included music to journeys in Kew Gardens in London, Bregenz in Austria, South Western Transylvania and more. www.sonicjourneys.co.uk
