Remembering (Aldeburgh beach)

I spent the close of 2021 with my parents in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. I went out onto the beach one windy evening to experiment with my new contact microphone. This piece includes sounds from a fish-hut flagpole and Maggi Hamblin’s ‘Scallop’ – a giant steel scallop shell sculpture bearing the words ‘I hear those voices that will not be drowned’ from Britten’s Peter Grimes opera. I’ve combined them with piano riffs I recorded a while ago.

I’ve been visiting Aldeburgh since I was a child and the beach holds so many memories for me. Not so much of events; more of states of being alone there. I’ve tried to capture something of that here.