From one tunnel to another (Blackfriars)

Blackfriars to Cannon Street reimagined by Paul Lewin.

"I have worked with recordings from the environment in my sound pieces for a few years now but these are more usually from the rural locality I inhabit. The idea of using a recording of the London Underground was a pleasing challenge and the recording “Blackfriars to Cannons Town “ immediately inspired on a first listen due to the variety and quality of sounds in the recording. I was particularly taken by the rising and falling tones of the trains entering and leaving the stations and I have used these to create some pitched musical elements to my piece. The whole recording was first put through Melodyne and “tuned” subtly which gives a slight choral effect and then it was chopped up and re-arranged in Live. I have used some drum sounds, a piano and a bell sound from lives instruments, but the rest of the piece was made entirely from the recording, looped or put into a sampler. I also used an impulse response ( thank you Ben! http://www.tunnelsounds.com ) of the underground with lives convolution reverb, I wanted a feel that the piece arrived through a tunnel and then disappeared back into one at the end. The tempo was varied through the piece to reflect that of a tube journey. ”

Part of our project The Next Station, reimagining the sounds of the London Underground and creating the first ever tube sound map. August 2016 - for more information see www.citiesandmemory.com/thenextstation