The Holbrook Sound Project:
Exploring the changing sounds of village life
In 20024, I explored how the soundscape of the village of Holbrook changed over the previous 100 years thanks to funding from Arts Council England.
Since moving to the Suffolk Village of Holbrook nearly decade ago, I have enjoyed looking at the wonderful old pictures of the village. These still images give a glimpse into the daily life of the community throughout the last century, but I soon became fascinated by what the village might have sounded like.
This interest in the sounds of the village started after reading the ‘Sounds and Noise’ chapter in the brilliant ‘Holbrook, The Story of a Village 1900-1983’ by local author Warrenton Page. Warrenton described a rich tapestry of working noises and sounds that drifted over the landscape; most, if not all, of these sounds are no longer heard.
I secured some funding through Developing Your Creative Practice from Arts Council England to research what these old sounds of the village were, to explore how and why the sounds of the village have changed over the last century and to record what sounds we hear in Holbrook today.
It was a privilege to hear villagers reminisce about long-gone squeaky roundabouts at the park and how the noisy engine of Staggy’s fruit and veg van announced his arrival on your street. Memories flooded in and sparked conversations between residents, and I used this invaluable social history both as a stimulus to investigate new sound locations within the village and to recreate the remembered sounds as foley for my compositions.
The project gave me protected time to develop and experiment with a new compositional technique that uses cartographical information for compositional arrangements and live performance. Information taken from maps such as the position of contour lines, rights of way, wooded areas and water features are extracted and transcribed to form a graphic score that shapes the arrangement of modified field recordings and the village foley sounds.
This technique formed the basis for a podcast featuring the natural sounds of the present day village, an album of experimental music, a geolocated soundwalk and three site-specific performances of my work to new audiences in performance spaces new to me.
I will continue to work on sound projects with my local community, and have been involved in planning and programming a ‘mini green arts festival’ in the village in November 2024 that will showcase my practice and work. Should this be successful, a larger scale festival is planned for 2025.
How you can get still get involved in the Holbrook project:
I am always very keen to hear about what sounds and noises people associate with Holbrook.
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You can explore (and help me identify) the old village sounds I have discovered so far.
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You can read my blog to see how the project developed.
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You can listen to over three hours of modern recordings of the village either on my podcast, or through the media player below.
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Matt Shenton
[These field recordings were recorded to showcase the natural sounds heard in a rural setting. They feature no human voices. No monies will be made from their recording. Please contact me if you have any concerns]