SONIC COMMONS is a series of broadcasts on Resonance FM responding to the poetic and phonic landscape of North Kent, produced in collaboration with FIELDNOTES.
Featuring field recordings, readings, and sonic landscapes, the series was produced whilst walking along the Thames Estuary. It includes encounters with people met along the way, who give voice to the collected texts that reference these places.
The resulting soundwork, composed by artist and musician Rob Shuttleworth, ranges across a sonic and textual landscape, producing unexpected encounters and resonances.
Thanks to all the collaborators, those who sent us texts and those who voiced them: Kashif, Eugene, Shippey, Joshua, Ollie, Katie Lane, James Hendrix Elsey, Gina Prat Lilly, Carolyn Oulton, GK Mollett, John Hartley, Jon Davis, Monty Williams, Nicole Mollett and Sarah Westcott.
Travelling through Warden Bay and the Leysdown Arcades on the Isle of Sheppey, this final episode of SONIC COMMONS was broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM on Tuesday 26 April 2024.
Voiced texts include extracts from Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban; Woodlands of Kent by Geoffrey Roberts; and chapters from Islanders authored by Fred Grimwade, Mary Holmes, Jenny Swoah and Brian Slade. Islanders is an anthology of collected stories of the people of Sheppey, it is the outcome of a project coordinated by Mike Dunstan and edited by John Firman.
Listen to episode 3 below.
Starting in in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, this episode, was broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM on Tuesday 27 February 2024.
Voiced texts include extracts from: a letter written by Uwe Johnson to Hannah Arendt while the writer was living in Sheerness; Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad; ‘Wreck, Rescue, Mutiny, Disaster, A shelf’, a found poem composed by John Hartley; and ‘TESCO’S’ by Fred Grimwade from the anthology Islanders, the collected stories of the people of Sheppey. Narratives from the island’s history were shared with us by Jenny Hurkett who founded and manages The Criterion, a heritage centre in Blue Town, Sheerness.
Listen to episode 2 below.
Starting in Gravesend, the first episode, was broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM on Tuesday 23 January 2024.
It includes extracts from Due to a Death by Mary Kelley, Hogarth’s Great Grand Tour by Jenny Uglow, Little Estuaries by Daniel Kramb, Portrait of a River by Nikolai Bendix, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Liquid City by Iain Sinclair and Marc Atkins.
Listen to the episode 1 below.
FIELDNOTES is an artist-run publishing project. They produce a biannual print journal containing new artwork & writing, alongside a public programme of workshops, screenings and readings. Their aim is to promote and support non-conforming creative practices that pioneer new cultural forms.