Additional Information
In January 2020 I had the privilege of being invited to record the collection of clocks owned by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers at The Science Museum with Ian Thompson.
The museum began to open at the stroke of ten just as all the clocks had begun to chime.
The sounds of daily life bled into the strict sonic architecture of the clocks as they sounded. School children, cleaners and café staff made the Museum into a breathing entity.
Listening back to the raw sound files during lockdown you can hear society drift in through the door. I felt an intense grief for losing time and space as we once knew it. Precarious futures await us. It feels as though we have been submerged in curious new structures of labouring, creating and waiting that are constantly shapeshifting. These unstable formations are restless. Waiting to settle into what once was.
WHAT CAME BEFORE THIS is a composition with clock recordings, mixed electronics,vocals, melting ice and harp. Clock recordings by Ian Thompson. With thanks to curator Anna Rolls and The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.
Your face
Pushing through
Is it though
Because I can hear your heart.
A distant churn and turn
Of earth
An opening
Tiny furrows ploughed by
Earthworms
Who remember your forehead
Almost as I do.
Now Unlined
For but tiny bone marrow sutures
Now smooth
Plate to plate
Now Under
A spray of pink
The blooms fall rotting
Into the dew
Back into you
Now unlined,
Now Smooth
Now Under
Now unlined,
Now Smooth
Now Under
Written, recorded and produced by Lou Barnell. Kindly supported by The Science Museum, London and The Worshipful Company of Clock Makers. Clock recordings by Ian Thompson
Details
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers
United Kingdom