the
Listening Room
"One hears without listening as one breathes without thinking"
Nan Shepherd's words from The Living Mountain set the tone for the evening as Anton Spice invited us to join him on a journey exploring representations of landscape, culture and memory through sound.
Taking Vika's lead, we headed to the OJAS Listening Room at 180 The Strand to truly immerse ourselves in Deep Listening. The room itself is something special: horn-loaded speakers and vacuum tube amplifiers, all built by audiophile Devon Turnbull in pursuit of delivering the finest sound in the most aesthetically considered way. Warmth, fidelity, and a sense that time has slowed down.
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That feeling of time slowing was, perhaps, the greatest luxury for a group of us used to deadline-driven studio work. Anton guided us through his research into sonic landscapes, beginning with what he described as his first truly successful recording, made in May 2020 after being stranded on the Isle of Muck during lockdown, having picked up field recording for the first time in March. We were particularly struck by the richness of that soundscape coming through the hi-fi with its dawn chorus and the strange aquatic sounds that later was revealed by Anton to be seals.
The evening moved fluidly: from Scottish island soundscapes and hydrophone recordings, through Gaelic Psalms that seemed to echo wind patterns, to disappearing sounds like bells and foghorns. We found ourselves asking whether centuries of history change how we perceive the sound of an instrument, before being brought back to the origins of ambient music where sonic landscape and musical composition intertwine.
Anton is a generous and engaging speaker, the audience laughed and pondered in equal measure, even as he cheerfully acknowledged that the recordings themselves leaned toward the moody end of the spectrum. He finished on a lighter note with a beautiful spoken word poem and soundscape composition by Lord of the Isles and Ellen Renton.
Sound is our profession, we listen every day, in soundproofed rooms, so this wasn't an entirely unfamiliar experience. But there's something different about being on the receiving end: tuning into each record for several unrushed minutes, sharing someone else's fascination with sound, and doing it all in a room that sounds as good as it looks.
A few records Anton played that are worth seeking out, ideally in a quiet room:
- Ingram Marshall — Fog Tropes / Gradual Requiem. Our highlight of the evening: foghorn field recordings manipulated for performance alongside a brass section.
- SALM — Gaelic psalms from the Hebrides of Scotland.
- Joshua Bonnetta — Innse Gall.
- Brian Eno — Ambient 4: On Land.
- Lord of the Isles and Ellen Renton — Inheritance.
