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