CD – Persistence of Sound

Persistence of Sound is an independent record label that has made sound exploration of urban and non-urban spaces one of its special areas of research. This is complemented by an interest in musique concrète and efforts to include in its catalogue sound experiences that exist outside of conventional categorisation. It is no surprise then that Kate Carr, one of the most talented field recordists in Britain, appears on the label. Carr approaches her work with an incredible sensitivity towards the spaces that she operates in, demonstrating a constant awareness of pre-existing relationships and cultural crossovers. Sound is a medium that we use to connect, occupy and immerse ourselves in everyday life, thus shaping and amplifying our experiences. Such recordings, however, occasionally have the opposite effect, taking us into an abstract dimension without any points of reference, giving rise to a sort of cathartic disorientation. This is what happens on this release, even if limited to the London metropolis – an area that has long been a choice for psychogeographical drifts where getting lost within neighbourhoods and urban spaces can be reconfigured into a form of anti-art. A sort of political-aesthetic tool that follows in the footsteps of the Situationists and more recently by Iain Chambers, with whom Carr collaborated on the Rubbish Music project, or in the work of Ian Rawes for The London Sound Survey. The challenge, in this case, is to render the multiplicity of sounds in an intimate and genuine way, trying to underline the interactions between the different components while moving in hybrid territories in which the co-presence of natural and artificial elements adds further complexity and substance to the recordings made. Midsummer, London is the result of audio captures taken during the summer solstice of 2023 along the river Thames. The result is decidedly disconcerting and poetic, restoring the importance of a significant sound heritage, often poorly perceived, where everything contributes to the consideration of how we negotiate our coexistence in very specific and determined set of realities.

 

Kate Carr – Midsummer, London