Today I was woken by the sound of the Sussex Police helicopter, hovering over my flat as it monitored a march by some rather suspect right wing fascist bigots. It's wonderful to live in a city where such behavior and views isn't tolerated by the majority of those who chose to live here.

It's been 'lively' around my flat for most of the day...

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....so the end of the 6th year of this blog...

As I'm currently undergoing some medical treatment I'm housebound right now....quietly listening to the world going on outside my window...

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The pure joy of Kits Popcorn Making Machine.....everyone should have one!

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...playing around with some recordings I've made of sounds which I hear pretty much everyday whilst in my home...an attempt at finding the 'soul' of the recording, the mood it sets and the subconscious tones which underscore our lives...

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This weekend, in Brighton, is Pride … which is difficult to avoid, especially if you have a flat in the centre of the city.

I thought I'd take the opportunity, as always, to record the parade as it passes the end of my street. This time though I thought I'd try recording it binaurally.

So here's an 11 minute edit of various parts of the parade (which in all lasts around 45 minutes), completely unprocessed in any way, no EQ, limiting, compression, just my fantastic and ever trusty Roland R-26 recorder and a set of Roland CS-10EM binaural microphones.

This is an .mp3 of the original (and noticeably superior) 48khz 24bit .wav recording.

As with all binaural recordings this is best listened to through good headphones.

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I've been messing around with contact mics, clocks, fridges and some other things in my kitchen, with the view of releasing something very soon on my Bandcamp page.

Here's a little demo.

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Train (interior perspective) 1989

Approaching East Croydon from Victoria, wait, depart, cross fade into running.

Slam doors, Zippo lighter lighting cigarettes (?), Gatwick Express pass, squeaks, rattles, track and points. Windows open.

From the days when the passenger was deemed responsible enough open doors themselves, despite the handles being on the outside of the train, and carriages had windows that could be opened and closed.

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One from the archive...an excerpt of Brighton Palace Pier recorded on 31.8.1989, probably using my old Sony Pro Walkman.

Still as noisy today, but the sounds all the machines make are a little different...

I've found some fascinating old recordings this evening,  sadly on some very deteriorated tape, I'll try to share more another time.

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A walk along Brighton sea-front, east from the pier. Fragments of conversations. The end of a warmish, sunny day.

For me this is the worst part of the whole beach area... but the most convenient for an evening stroll.

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This year I haven't been home by the sea nearly enough, a hectic schedule. I also haven't recorded enough for this blog for partly the same reason …

Today was a windy south coast day, the sun broke through for a while and the temperature did rise, but this summer, all in all, has been pretty awful.

So I went wandering 'round Brighton, listening, looking and enjoying. I recorded an awful lot but most of it wasn't new to my ears, or those ears which follow me here.

Here's some excerpts from my day, sea, children playing, some amusement arcade and a flock of seagulls trying hard to spoil my enjoyment of the Olympic cycling on TV.

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Sitting quietly in my flat, on New Years Day, listening to the rain and Seagulls, as I try to quietly recover from last nights celebrations.

Happy New Year!

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This could be thought of as a quiet afternoon...then you listen, duelling Buskers competing with Pigeons and of course Seagulls. The drone of city centre traffic.

More and more buskers are opting for cheap battery powered amplification, why?  The beautiful acoustic sounds of the saxophone and unknown African instrument against the tinny sound of the electric guitar in this recording demonstrates this perfectly.

Brighton, Pavilion Gardens, 28/12/11. @ 2pm.

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Another Roland R-26 test recording.

Some (worryingly noisy) water pipes.

This is a six track recording using the on-board XY and Omni mics and some Jez Riley French custom made contact microphones.

Once again this recording was simply point and shoot, with no post production processing.

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Constructed and de-constructed from field recordings and sounds from my library...I hope that (to some extent) it's self-explanatory.

No birds, or animals were harmed in the making over this piece and no musical instruments were used!

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A warm Sunday lunchtime, city centre pub garden, voices, cutlery and crockery, children playing. Maybe the last Sunday this year where the weather will allow you to enjoy your Sunday roast sitting outside?

25.9.10 - 14.30

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A rare day off and a good nights sleep....just before I went out for a walk along the beach, on this very warm Autumns day, this started.

...the source for a future tone/drone...

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A fleeting visit home to Brighton after a really busy week in Manchester. An early start tomorrow as it the official launch of the Association of Sound Designers at the PLASA Show which is held at Earls Court.

So it's raining outside and being tired and not wanting to get wet I spent some time working on trying to recreate (in some way) a song the band I played in way back when performed called Jonny's Got A Stripy Jumper... being Saturday it was football results at teatime too!

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...a frequent journey, thoughts, daydreams. A little something I did on a rainy afternoon a couple of weeks ago.

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More madness, music, mayhem, whistles and sirens from yesterdays parade.

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It's been an awful week of rioting and violence in England. It's been wonderful to get home to Brighton and experience what this great city does best, put smiles on peoples faces...Manchester, where I work, has been grim over the past 6 days, as the violence spread around the city, mindless thugs looting, fighting, setting fire to buildings...but in Brighton today it's just party time as tens of thousands of people descend to celebrate Gay Pride...in essence it doesn't matter whether you're straight, gay, black, white, rich or poor...it's simply party time. As I sit here in my city centre flat I can hear music, laughter, people celebrating life and all thats good about being a human being. It's also wonderful being a straight male and being welcomed to take part, there is little or no prejudice around here today...it doesn't matter who you are, forget 'your' troubles, 'the' troubles and have fun.

Brighton you're magnificent today. Here's a recording of a small section of the hour long parade through the city.

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I've just been sitting on the beach, recording some sea and thinking about shipwrecks. When I got home I improvised this using the recordings I'd just made and whatever audio, recorded in the past, found on my laptop.

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Manager Gus Poyet leads the singing at the end of the Brighton and Hove Albion victory parade, earlier today, in celebration of winning League 1 ...more soon... Seagulls!

Warning - Contains language which some may find offensive.

More recordings here http://audioboo.fm/boos/351532-brighton-hove-albion-victory-parade-excerpt

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Brighton is a city which full of people, music and bad quality sound systems. This is some of the music I heard whilst walking through Pavilion Gardens, Bond Street and The Lanes this afternoon. Today is the first day of the 2011 Brighton Festival so everywhere was pretty crowded...and noisy...

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Living close to Brighton seafront you're never sure what you'll wake up and find happening on your doorstep...yesterday it was anarchists causing a little mayhem and ensuring the local riot police were given plenty of chance to practice what they've been trained for, today it was lovingly cared for and restored vintage fire engines, buses and lorries finishing the London to Brighton Run of the Historical Commercial Vehicle Society. Unfortunately I didn't have my recorder primed yesterday but today...I did.

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Woken by natures alarm clock...6.30am. Sometimes I wish I had the ability to set it for later, an early start for a day off.

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A very windy day, a bumpy car ride, in search of a noisy pub sign swinging in the wind...a journey to Ditchling.

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It's now the final few sentences of the last chapter, of what will be known as 2010 and I've spent this cold winters evening, a week before Christmas, listening back to some of the recordings I've made this year and thinking about what will, to me, soon become little more than a few distant memories.

My biggest realisation of this year is that it seems..too many people are now living their lives as if they're appearing on some reality TV show...too many intelligent people are apparently blind to what is and has been happening right under their noses...also puzzling is their lack of awareness at just how they're being cleverly manipulated...puppeteers being controlled by puppets...sad, funny and a cause for some concern.

We all need to continue to grow, creators of art...entertainment...those of us who want to push boundaries, share and learn, need to fight against those who seek to obstruct our futures and our growth and I sense that in many ways 2011 will be even more important to all of us.

So here's to our continued personal growth and greater wisdom in 2011!

I hope this recording reflects some of what I've learnt this year.

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White Night Brighton 2010

Recordings made between midnight and 3am on Sunday 31^st October 2010

Projection in Jubilee Square/Female singer on balcony at the junction of New Road and North Street/Atmosphere in an Off License, North Street/Slide projectors and creaky floorboards in the Fabrica Gallery (The House of Vernacular Exhibition)/Male singer on balcony at the junction of New Road and North Street

A great night and the exhibition at Fabrica, curated by Martin Parr, is well worth visiting and showing until November 28th.

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Saturday 18th September 2010

10.05am

The Hum and noise as the city wakes up on a sunny Autumn morning. Noise from clubs and bars preparing for the Saturday onslaught, a couple of small airplanes travelling east shortly after leaving Shoreham Airport.

The sounds, which when I wake to them in the morning, remind me that I'm home.

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The drone of clubs, pubs and office air-conditioning and then the builders start drilling in the in the courtyard behind my building, Tuesday morning whilst trying to do a little mixing... Aircon, drilling, builders, aircraft and seagulls....Tuesday morning in Brighton.

4th May 2010

10am

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