SIREN
bookscape

‘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 a 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 take places at dawn on two piers in the harbour of a northern east English coastal village. Siren will be published in 2006 as one in a series of bookscapes, publications which combine audio, book, web and digital animation to reflect our contemporary extended experience of reading.