SOUND AND FURY

During lockdown, in the absence of much of the usual noise of human exchange, we have reconnected with our sonic environment. In South Cumbria we have been aware of birdsong, and the call and response of animal sounds, of the way sound can indicate space and distance . Through the thursday shout-outs we have taken a place within it, causing a measurable audio spike to occur at set times, coalescing and separating like the voices that make up the dawn chorus, or the

 'starlight barking.'  

The thursday gatherings will constitute the building bricks of communal memory of a time where any kind of public gathering has been restricted; their scale reflects the scattered nature and varying densities of our population, the sounds in some cases describe local geography and industry. Individual voices are heard, there are suggestions of isolation and separteness and of communities within communities.

The shout-outs represent a rare point of regional and national consensus and celebration. In Ulverston the events became a weekly ritual; the sound pallette expanded, musicians joined in , other events were referenced, but the scale of the events remained small, intimate and ; their impact relied on breadth and depth of engagement rather than high volume.

Lately the national consensus has frayed, whatever license has been granted by relaxed guidelines has been exploited and this has impacted on our region.Other viral events and other viruses have impacted and impinged on a fragile peace; hoping to cause a spike, a convoy of racists travelled north claiming  the same license as leading political figures. 

  In the day to day familiar levels of Traffic noise have returned. and it may be that the moment where permanent change was possible has passed in the haste to normality. 

However.. The memory of the events will be a shared point of reference in later life for young people, and it may be that they lead to a reassertion of the primacy of shared experience of a smaller scale.

We were reminded of the value of traditional low tech ceremony and celebration, of the intimacy and shared purpose found in accessible communal rituals of thanks and defiance....

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/boris-johnson-faces-rough-music-a-great-british-tradition

The period is also promoting an awareness of the fragility of our sonic environment, and its value to our well-being. During periods of isolation sound can nourish us and remind us that we are a community; but in the times to come, when visitors return and when privacy and peace may be hard to find, respect for our ecosystem might be extended to the soundfields we share. The social and ambient sound of South Cumbria and the Lakes has revealed itself and its benefits to us in recent weeks; we should celebrate its gentle power, and not conceal it.