Sound
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Luke Fowler (b. 1978)


Bamberg and Elsewhere
Unreleased field Recordings, made between summer and autumn of 2006 by Luke Fowler.

  1. Bottle Sculpture, Nuremberg. (5.57)

    Consists of two recordings make on an autumnal Saturday in Nuremburg. The first layer is ring modulated contact mic recording of a homemade bottle display attached to a bar in Nuremberg. This is layered with an unprocessed contact mic recording of the surface of a steel public sculpture of a girl, also in Nuremberg city centre.

  2. Regnets and Dornau, Bamberg. (11.18)

    Contains several hydrophone recordings of underwater plants and insects in the botanic gardens in Bamberg and the River Dornau. Over the course of the piece there are also included various Hornwort recorded in Melbourne (Derby), a rain storm in Bamberg, a contact mic recording of a heating pipe in my studio and the electrical interference of a train junction box.

  3. Fountain, Bamberg. (1.36)

    Contact mic recording.

  4. Fence post, Klinikum, Bamberg. (5.18)

    Contact mic recording.

    Streetlight and heating vent, Bamberg. (5.41)

    Contains two recordings, the first is made using a contact mic applied to a outdoor heating vent at a hospital in Bamberg, the second is a filtered recording of a buzzing streetlight, recorded at midnight in Bamberg. From that same night you can finally hear the sound of some construction tape flapping in the wind.

  5. Senior Citizens Pond and Burnt Brezels. (9.47)

    Duet between a pond in Bamberg and Brezels being burnt on top of a tomato slicer.

  6. Heating Vent in Nuremberg. (5.41)

    A contact mic recording of a heating vent outside a cinema in Nuremberg. Around the huge aluminium pipe were several bushes, as the wind moved the bushes they scratched and beat on the side of the pipe.

  7. Public Sculpture at Klinikum. (10.14)

    A medley of locations around Bamberg, recorded with contact and air microphones and EQ'd to concentrate on certain frequencies of each sound. The primary air drones are created by the wind playing a public sculpture found at the grounds of a Hospital in Bamberg. Close to the same hospital there are two ponds, you can hear the sound of the pondweed and fish crackling away. The sub bass and high sounds come from a recording made underneath a 6 lane motorway bridge, at this location you can also faintly hear a skate park, which is across the other side of the river and some pigeons, who live in the bridge. The final sound to be introduced is that of the air trapped in a flask of tea.

Recorded whilst on a residency at Villa Concordia, Bamberg.
Thanks to Lee Patterson for the Hydrophone design and encouragement.



Be Dear Crazy Loud
Luke Fowler and Sue Tompkins (2003)

  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2

2003 unreleased, artists copy.

Compositions for found cassette, sampler and vocals by Luke Fowler, P6 and Sue Tompkins.

There is no documentary information on the cassette. It is a home recording made in the early-mid 70's, the recording is of a daughter and her mother engaged in a very intense argument. The daughter was diagnosed schizophrenic and perhaps spent some time in institutions and psychotherapy with R.D. Laing, who ended up in possession of this covert recording. It seems that the daughter made this recording to furnish Laing with an insight into her family life, but in hindsight it could also be a taken as a case study extracted from the research Laing and Dr. Aaron Esterton conducted for their 1964 study of Schizophrenic families "Sanity, Madness and the Family".

The performance will be split into two reactions to this cassette The first will be playback of a vocal re-interpretation of a transcript of the cassette by Sue Tompkins. The second piece will be performed is by P6 (vocals) and Luke Fowler (sampler and processing). The initial idea for the work is that all the sounds you hear within the composition derive from this cassette; the incidental sounds of the domestic environment are used as instruments creating an atonal orchestral backing for P6's layered vocals.



The Social Engineer
Luke Fowler (1999)

  1. The Social Engineer / Pete and Paddy
The Social Engineer (1999, produced with and for Transmission Gallery, Gallery) One permutation of a sound and video work that derived from documentation of a set of interviews that I set up at the Transmission Gallery in 1999. I made video and sound recordings of around ten to fifteen 'socially engineered' discussions that occurred between pairs of invited individuals and members of the public. These took place several times a day at Transmission Gallery in late 1999 and lasted about an hour.  The invited individuals were local artists, musicians, academics, a representative of Strathclyde Police and the guvenor of a high profile Scottish prison.  The resulting documentation was used as source material for a myriad of works involving a number of individuals; from video to wallpaper, electronic music and a script that was read out by two Glaswegian actors - in this instance Tim Webster and friend.