Three audio fragments for … as a process of line-making, a collaborative text score project by Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully (aka Distant Animals).

The first fragment I worked on is for page 62 of the score, titled “Instructions for an exhibition.” Over a series of seven short walks during the last of our astronomical twilight for the year, and seven exhibitions held in the remaining nautical twilight, this short fixed-media work emerged. Footsteps travel each night from the marina at Broad Noust to nearby Flaws’ pier in Stromness, Orkney. Songlines are borrowed as suggested by two friends who have sung them to the seals in the harbour. With the de/synchronisation of the walking pace we hear different ground conditions underfoot and the weather turning rough. We don’t hear the daytimes at all: the Yole Association giving up the lease of the sailhouse, and the pier itself being repaired and repointed as if just in time for the show…

The second fragment I made, for page 121, is about progression without movement, and articulating sense. With the help of my son and inspiration from a social media post made by our local Tai Chi group, we think a bit about sound and space, and all the aspects of ourselves that we need to employ to actually listen in this world.

While pondering the mention of a ‘rabbit mask’ on 39 page of the score, I was amazed to discover that my downstairs studio neighbour is in possession of just such an item – so we captured the moment, fast. As ever, time and space of course then enter the picture during the process of reflection, and this snippet was eventually fixed in time, just in time…