4 urban landscapes

Mark O'Leary

cs162

In urban landscapes I tried to capture and document environmental audio
associated with Urban Cork City.
We live in a world where our perceptions of sound and image are coloured
by the audio we are listening to on our ipod or whilst we are conversing on our
blackberry, but urban audio is a gem that has a cultural significance reflecting our identity
and is a historical audio snapshot.
What I'm trying to portray has been animated by audio processing to give an ambient
dimension to the sound images.

Shandon

Shandon is a soundpiece where I try to capture an aural image of walking through Shandon,
visiting The church, the bells, reflecting on the Roof over looking the city, meditating in the clock tower and walking back down shandon street. Creating a picture of life in a historic part of the city.

Echo

Echo is a piece where the Echo boys (street newspaper vendors) voices are manipulated and processed against an ambient backdrop of Patrick St.
This is influenced by American composer
Steve Reich, whom inspired me for many years with his tape pieces Come Out and Its gonna rain
I was also influenced by the systems used in Stockhausens Licht cycle.
There is a call and response scenario being developed. It is important to distinguish the subtle contrast between the Echo boys, one of the voices is earthy, perhaps the soul of Cork and implicit in the other voice is a more refined boy soprano texture.

Panaramic

What is it like to walk down Patrick St in this post-Celtic tiger era hearing the different dialects/languages/colloquialisms, sounds of commerce,
sounds of social activity, cultural/music sounds and the banks of my own lovely
lee recited by 22 different people from all nationalities domiciled in Cork.
The title is a wordplay on Pana, colloquial term for Patrick st and panoramic
alluding to our aural interpretation.

The Stonecutter

The Stonecutter is a petite homage pour Seamus Murphy, one of our greatest artists.
Cork is adorned with ornate Stonework. I recorded a stonecutter working with stone
and used the rhythm of his work, texture of stone and activity of his space to create a
soundpiece with an ambient soundscape around it
I also composed a poem the Stonecutter, which Gokcen Dilek Acay from Istanbul recited for me,
I edited/processed it and inserted this in the piece, Bjork couldn't have done it better, her fragile voice is the perfect contra balance to the
perfection of the craftsmans precision.

The Stone Cutter

The Stone Cutter works by day by night , in another world that displays his plight, his passion he carves, cuts and cleans images, symbols and other scenes.
Saints with Sinners upon Glebe ascending
Gargoyles and heraldry on urban appending
Granite, limestone and marble his muse
in his hands he morphs with enthuse
In masons apron, chisel to hand connecting in a
way we try to understand.
A tactile experience, granular aroma, striking the stone sonically soma.
The stone cutter worketh by day by night, conjuring, creating monumental light.

Mark O'Leary