Coal Lines

Coal Lines was my first proper official commission - working with the artist Tony Wade and the tech company XPlor, I created a one hour long soundscape to accompany a new exhibition, Sentinel, in WX (Wakefield Explore), the new events space in the centre of Wakefield.

The soundscape consistsedof two main sections, a 15 minute composed piece in 5 sections, depicting a day in the life of a mining village, followed by a 45 minute interactive soundscape section. Visitors to the exhibition could 'play' the notes in the piece by breaking light beams which surrounded the sculpture.

The piece explores the history of mining in the Wakefield district with an emphasis on the use of canaries (the centrepiece of the exhibition is "Sentinel", a giant light sculpture inspired by canaries). The piece incorporated the sound of canaries, live brass band music, excerpts from both archival interviews and interviews I carried out with ex-miners, and music written and recorded by myself in my own studio.

The arty and unique element of this project was the fact that the piece is based on 34 notes, which have been mathematically determined by the relative depths of the 34 mine shafts that were operating in the Wakefield district - each of the 34 pits has a designated note within a three octave range.

You can listen to an mp3 of the piece, and also a truncated remixed version of the soundscape on my music page.