Sounds for an Empty House

24 hours, 24 artists, 1 empty house

26 – 27 June 2021

Plas Bodfa, Llangoed, Wales
and experience online

Soundlands and Plas Bodfa Projects presents:

Sounds for an Empty House – an audio exploration of Plas Bodfa

A 100-year-old manor house, currently empty of human residents, but far from silent. Its structure channels gusty winds through drainpipes, creating baritone whispers. Gaps in the roofing slates allow smaller bursts of air to enter and dissipate softly into echoing voids. A fidgety family of jackdaws inhabits one spacious attic, while bats silently occupy another. Water drips through unseen drains. A panel edged with crackled tape exhales. A vent flaps. Something, somewhere shutters.

Part 1

Sounds from an Empty House

LISTEN – to a 24-hour live-stream from Plas Bodfa

Sounds created by the house itself and its immediate surroundings will be live-mixed, augmented and manipulated by invited, local sound artists and creatives.

Saturday, 26 June, beginning at sunrise (05:00)
live for 24 hours until
Sunday, 27 June, ending at sunrise (05:00)

24 sound artists and creatives participating in the live stream:

the livestream has now ended

Part 2

Sounds for an Empty House

CREATE – sound works for Plas Bodfa.

Recordings of the live-stream, along with sounds from the house in various weather conditions, will be available to creatives world-wide to create a new audio composition.

The submissions from this open call will be released as a joint digital album with Welsh experimental music label Amgueddfa Llwch.

submission info album

Chaparral Andrew Hodges

Chaparral Andrew reveals floor tones through polyrhythmic stepping.
Carphology Collective

Carphology plays a light mix of pure house to ease the morning in.
Katherine Betteridge

Katherine explores the house with her violin, voice and tuning fork.
Ynyr Pritchard

Ynyr transforms Plas Bodfa into a sonic playground, amplifying the ghosts of the present.
etchasketch

Etchasketch uses bio-sensors to transform inaudible plants into audible music.
Angela Davies

Angela uses wide-band electromagnetic receivers and ultra-sonic detectors.
Mark Albrow

Mark stretches the sounds of house flies.
Bev Craddock

The crunching noises of Plas Bodfa’s draft excluder feature in this lunchtime slot.
Zoë Skoulding & Alan Holmes

Alan and Zoë give voice to the house.
Post Premonition

Post Premonition construct a suspect guide to the house and its history.
Real Institute

Real Institute imposes a rule-bound, multi-player walking game – pedescape.
Rob Spaull

Rob loops fragments of house noises into a wider harmonious soundscape.
ANOIKIS

ANOIKIS conjure an art brut happening of sound and movement.
Glyn Roberts – FFRWD

FFWRD conjures a dystopian view of Plas Bodfa’s sonic future.
Super Group

Super Group carry out house repairs in real space and time.
ACCRETION ENTROPY

Three acoustic warriors do battle with empty architecture. We think the house will win.
tom.m

Tom recognises the paradox of just being in a house that’s empty.
Hopewell Ink

Hopewell Ink use noise and the spoken-word to summon up Plas Bodfa’s ghosts.
Lisa Heledd Jones

Lisa mics up wall crevices and dusty chandeliers to create her audio message for the internet.
Amy Sterly

As midnight strikes, Amy sprints through the house, vibrating objects, writing, writing and writing.
Charles Gershom

Charles plays with the house’s integral acoustic architecture.
Ed Wright

Ed makes a late night meditation on mortar, dust under the nails, lives, and time.
j Milo Taylor

Milo rigs the house with sequenced solenoids beating out rhythms on walls, radiators, floors and windows.
Graham Hembrough

Graham uses a parabolic microphone to bring the outside inside as dawn draws our twenty-four hours to a close.