Melanie Clifford and Matt Davies – Sluice Light / Sluice Sound: Songs between waters, between tides
Monday, 14 September⋅7:00 – 8:00pm
At 7pm this evening Melanie Clifford and Matt Davies present ‘Sluice Light / Sluice Sound: Songs between waters, between tides’.
Four tunnels reach beneath Underfall Yard, linking Bristol’s Floating Harbour to the tidal River Avon. Below the brick Sluice House they meet the massive iron gates which are raised and lowered to protect the harbour from flooding and drain silt. Sluice activation induces currents that swirl, agitate and animate the water within. The motor-driven machinery is reaching the end of its working life and will soon be replaced. Melanie & Matt have been taking time there, recording, playing back and re-recording the old sluices’ poundings and groans: yielding resonant frequencies that fluctuate as the water held in the chambers rises and falls. These songs, collected raw and in situ, can be listened to in this broadcast.
These unique sounds have never before been heard outside the Sluice House at Underfall Yard.
