Traffic and birdsong, a wet Sunday morning in North Manchester.

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Today (Saturday 26^th) is the first warmish day of the year and the seafront was unbelievably packed with day trippers. I decided to take a walk along the pier, I enjoy the naffness of it all, but much like everywhere else on a Saturday (and as you’ll perhaps hear), it is, as always, a mecca for young drunk Englishmen. The British yob culture continues to get out of control.  

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Sunday morning in Prague, 6^th April 2008.

No need to set an alarm clock when your hotel is sited right next to Szent Péter-Templom.

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A recording taken on a roof terrace of the George R Brown Conference Cent(e)r(e) in Houston. The low rumble of the city, building works and the distant wail of a police car.

I’m not going to see a lot of this place which is a real shame…

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So my flight to Houston was eventually diverted to Alexandria due to bad weather and a severe lack of fuel! So, Alexandria ‘International’ Airport is very small and the ‘International’ bit, is pushing it slightly. Anyway sat watching rubbish TV in the departure lounge as the 7.30am flight I should be on is now leaving at 10am…..The panel discussion I’m taking part in at USITT Conference is at midday…..mmmmmmmm

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So I’m currently stuck in Indianapolis Airport, waiting for my flight down to Houston. Getting bored and frustrated. Here’s an atmosphere recording taken 5 minutes ago. There aren’t even any shops to go and spend my money in….and my battery is low…

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I’ve been rushing round the USA for a few days now lecturing, having fun, meeting old and making new friends, lots of photographs and recordings.

Here’s the bell at Tippecanoe County Courthouse striking 4pm. A lovely building in the very centre of downtown Lafayette.

Sunday 16th 4pm

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Water well, hopefully explained in the photographs! Lafayette, Indiana

Sunday March 16th

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Rain and distant highway, recorded in Glastonbury, Connecticut

7am Saturday 15th March 2008

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I should have mentioned that the voice on “Tell Me Tonight” (below) is that of the very talented Clare Cameron.

Tell me Tonight - A collaboration between Steven Brown and Nicola Field/Steam Control. This piece was part of ‘Why Won’t You Tell Me?’ which was recently presented at the X08 Festival at the BFI.

The usual internet compression….

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Some thoughts from my train journey today… Are we losing our individualism in a search for perfection? Computers have, in no small way, contributed to this as, as an example, they offer us all the same fonts and spellchecker facilities. Anyone in the world could write these sentences in Arial 12pt. Apart from my choice of words and the order I decided to place them in, what singles out this piece of writing from anyone else’s, where is my individual stamp? How do you even know that I’ve written this? My handwriting is a left handed dyslexic scrawl, often difficult to read, so Arial 12pt at least gives me some hope of being understood. But it’s exactly this, my scrawl, that separates me and identifies me, along with the crossed out, wrongly spelt words and doodles in the margin. Who is to blame? William Caxton? Henry Mill? Gates and Jobs? How can you be an individual when your writing looks like everyone else’s? Handwritten songs and music from Lennon to Bach sell for thousands of pounds at auctions, but what now? If a lyric or piece of music is written using a word processor where is the interest and soul in that? The mistakes and rewrites are deleted the spelling is usually correct and it’ll be cut, copied and pasted to perfection, the anguish, struggles and mistakes, which any great artist goes through when creating, are lost and with it also, possibly our understanding of the work itself.  

As I’m writing this my (poor) grammar is being highlighted, how dare this software offer an opinion in such a way.  Is your choice of font about as much of a symbol of your individuality as it now gets?

I use computers everyday, I compose and create, I write, I edit my photographs, but how am I really able to keep the processes I go through which, in years to come, will validate the decisions I make/made.  

Have we become just too obsessed with this neatness and common form?  What can we do to maintain any individualism (red underlined check spelling) when creating on our computers?

I think I’m searching for a way to highlight the many imperfections which single me out and make me, me.  

I suppose it’s quite natural for us all to want the finished ‘product’ to be as good as it can be, but I also think we should not shy away from sharing the mistakes which we all make achieving this. This is where I fell asleep, somewhere around Three Bridges…no doubt to be continued…

 

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Some out takes, a few FX and tones from a recent design.

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Today is the first anniversary of this audio diary of mine…I can’t believe how many visitors it’s had and how many subscribers it’s got…just a little place on the web to store a few sonic memories of mine and a cupboard for an ongoing project which gestates in my mind daily. Anyway, thank you, I’m glad other people seem to enjoy it. No one is more surprised than me that I’ve managed to keep this up!

It’s frustrating that my recorder isn’t primed and ready when I hear the really interesting sounds…but…one day…

The most popular entry.

And

A bowl of fruit :)  

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Latitude 53° 28′56.15″N

Longitude  2°14′39.54″W

14:25 Friday 18th January 2008

A wet Friday afternoon…

Street Sound #1   

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I was invited over to Rotterdam to give a talk, a wonderful invitation to hang out with some excellent people. But the flight over was the most awful I’ve ever experienced, a small propeller ‘plane (the bigger the plane the happier I am I’m afraid) and gale force winds from the time we took off until the moment we landed. Only a 35 minute flight from London City Airport, but I’ve never seen so many ashen faced people, as I did when we finally got off the ‘plane….smart and no doubt important (in their minds anyway) business people looking as if they’d just had as near a death experience as they were ever likely to have, before the real thing. I’m amazed that these little planes are able to take off and land virtually sideways! My knuckles were white by the time we arrived. The pilot was great…thankfully…London looks amazing as you’re hurtling towards it when you should be flying upwards and away….

Anyway, I was pleased to finally make it into the centre of Rotterdam and enjoy a peaceful ride on one of there very efficient subway trains, which thankfully maintained a constant height and speed

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Looking for the wonderful Kunsthal, I just had to make the time during my short stay here to visit the Jean Tinguely exhibition.

This walk was fun through what is essentially an ugly city, with lot’s of character and lovely people.

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Another very windy day in Rotterdam, making so difficult to record….oh well.

Anyway, the Rotterdam City Hall clock, Westminster chimes and striking just once despite it being 2pm!

Lattitude 52° 9′27.95″N

Longitude 4°29′28.43″E

9th January 2008 14:00

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A peaceful Christmas in Cornwall and then home to Brighton for the New Year…

I saw 2008 in on the beach…I left my recorder on my fire escape which backs onto the same courtyard as a number of pubs and clubs…so here’s the last 5 minutes of 2007 and the first 5 of 2008…. from the back of my flat…Happy New Year!

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A brief walk around the German Christmas market in St. Ann’s Square, Manchester.

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After a 13 hour day in the theatre perhaps the last thing you need is; to share the jouney home with a bunch of Take That fans in an overcrowded tram…..

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Some noisy, but extremely well behaved and likable Sporting Lisbon fans, singing in Manchester city centre before tonight’s football match against Manchester United.

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‘The Dead Dog’ - one of my collaborations with Poet Nicola Field for Why Won’t You Tell Me? The first of Steam Controls Castwords series. It’s also included as part of the sound design exhibit at the V&A’s Collaborators: UK Design for Performance. Dody Nash commissioned me to create something for her brilliant Listening Shell…also at the V&A you can hear that here…Lost at Sea…

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Interesting

The familiar sounds of north Manchester with added Guy Fawkes firework party mayhem…… 

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