With only a few days until we go live, we would like announce and introduce to you the artists creating sonic compositions inspired by this unique building and its history.
First up is Jaydev Mistry…
Jaydev – part of the Manchester music scene for over 20 years – is a guitarist, percussionist and music technologist.
He has designed and built an augmented guitar which is populated with various sensors that allow him to manipulate his guitar sound, enabling him to create deep and lush musical soundscapes.
He has collaborated with artists such as Nitin Sawhney (session 72: Contact Theatre) and The Kaliphz. Jaydev has performed in many bands including, Timeless Love Orchestra, Giddy and B.B and Me, performing in venues including Band on the Wall, Bridgewater Hall, Royal Exchange, the Pompidou Centre and the Hackney Empire.
Jaydev also specialises in composition and sound design for theatrical productions and has been commissioned by companies such as Red Ladder Theatre Company, Theatre in the Mill, Greater Manchester Music Action Zone and BBC Radio 4.
The Ghost of Barton
For the Sonic Pixels composition I wanted to use the sounds that already exist in the building with and without the sound of humans in the space. I was hoping to discover and use the hidden sonics that exist in the building to influence and build a narrative for the composition.
I did this by going into the space one evening when no one was around and made a number of recordings. I recorded sounds in different parts of the space and found some amazing ambient sounds, for example hums, creaking, percussive and various types of droning sounds. I also made recordings on another day when the space was busy with people.
I then used a spectrum analyser to visualise the frequency content of the recordings. Spectrum analysers give you a graphical representation of what’s happening in the frequency range of your audio recording. This allowed me to obtain a plot of dominant frequencies within a portion of the audio recording. Using this process I was able to find specific notes and harmonics that could be used in a musical context. The diagram below shows an analysis for part of an ambient recording I made in the Barton Arcade one evening when there was no one around.
The lighter streaks show specific frequencies that I isolated using spectral filtering and then used a spectral synthesiser, Iris by Izotpe, to create some of the sounds in my composition.
Using these processes I found many different types of musical notes, harmonics and percussive sounds that that are of an eery nature. I also discovered that a young girl, Edith Porter who worked in Barton Arcade, died in a tragic accident whilst using the lift in the early 1900s. Coupled with the sounds I discovered and manipulated I was led on an eery and possibly a ghostly path during my composition process.
Jaydev + Lewis Sykes of Cornbrook Creative meet in Barton Arcade at Pot Kettle Black
Jaydev in Cornbrook Creative’s Cakebread Workshop testing the Sonic Pixels system