From As Above So Below, collaborative artist residency, St John on the Wall, Bristol, October 2018. With thanks to the Churches Conservation Trust.
Site Singing live performance, bringing the sound of bells from the upper church into the church below (lower church / crypt).
The sound samples used include the church bells ringing, Southern improvising to them ringing in the acoustics of the upper church, the sound of the harmonium 'breathing' (the bellow mechanism working but with no keys pressed), and the sound of the hand-bell (fire bell) being rung while processing the central aisle of the upper church.
For the live performance in the church below - the lower church or crypt directly beneath, the processing was exactly recreated down the centre of the space with the same bell. So the recorded sound of the bell being rung in the church above combined with the live bell moving through the space below - the acoustics and different natural reverb of the two spaces accompanying each other. Southern also used live voice and loop pedals to blend the other samples from the upper church into the space 'below'.
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Photo: Matthew Faulkner