siren
Alec Finlay and Chris Watson

‘here I am, here I am, waiting to hold you’ – Tim Buckley

Alec's original concept for Siren was to take the refrain from Tim Buckley’s metaphysical love song ‘Song to the Siren’ (starsailor, 1971) and have this sung by a man and a woman in separate places. They are invited to sing deep into the refrain until it becomes a litany. Later Finlay became interested in field recordings of the natural environment, with their decentred experience of sound. He has collaborated with Chris Watson to record siren, sung by Clive Powell and Maria Jardardottir. The recordings took place at dawn on two piers in the harbour of a North East English coastal village.

Siren will be published in March 2006 as the forth in the series of bookscapes publications which combine audio, book, web and digital animation to reflect our contemporary extended experience of reading.


Documentation of the recording
Photographs by Michele Allen © 2005
Video footage by Ben Ponton (amino) editied by Laura Harrington
22 August, 2005

Audio extract
© Alec Finlay, Chris Watson 2006
Sound Composition © Chris Watson 2006
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Links

www.chriswatson.net
www.touchmusic.org.uk
www.maria-jardardottir.com
www.amino.org.uk