Produced by OCM, Audible Forces is an intricate landscape of musical installations powered by the wind. Intriguing kinetic, sonic creations produce other-worldly sounds as nature’s unseen force breathes life into them. Alongside myself, the featured artists are Max Eastley, Jony Easterby, Mark Anderson, Dan Fox, Mike Blow, and Nathaniel Robin Mann. Having toured Audible forces for the summer of 2013, it was great to get together for Aeolian fun again at Appetite Festival in Central Forest Park, Stoke-on-Trent.

Each afternoon, we staged a short participatory intervention around the windy sound sculptures. This began with Nathaniel Mann singing a song and telling tales about the pigeon whistle flights that are part of the show. He was joined by musician / artist Goodiepal who whistled with his beautiful handmade mechanical bird that was handed around for people to take a closer look. Max Eastley then led us in an Aeolian experiment using long elastic, stretching it out so it could sing in the wind… better described in the following video… an act of spontaneous entertainment with Max Eastley…

Max talked further about the history and curious mythology of Aeolian instruments, described how his Aeolian harp works, and mused on the mysterious nature of the wind. Each of the artists then gave a short talk about their piece to a fascinated public.

And here are some new photos of my wind activated sound sculpture Sonic Reed Beds taken at Appetite Festival…

Audible Forces is produced by OCM and Oxford Brookes University Sonic Art Research Unit. Co-commissioned by Brighton Festival and Without Walls. The participation of Max Eastley in Audible Forces has been supported by AHRC. Nathaniel Robin Mann is a Sound and Music Embedded artist in residence with Pitt Rivers Museum and OCM.