Swamp bike no.2 on a final test ride at the end of a research week for “The swamp that was..” a bicycle opera for Ghent. We were assessing cycling distance from city centre out to this path beside the river Schelde also playing various pieces on the way. At the moment of stopping to head back, a flock of geese gathered and circled over us twice. “Les verres”, a remix of a Louis de Meester experiment by Matthews accompanies. Local historian Adrien Brysse’s talk about Ganda (the old name for Ghent) coming from the Engish name for geese, and that Ghent is built on a swamp, had also played at the start of their pedal.

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We’ve come for a cuppa with Blanca who was singing with the Ledebirds on Monday night. She lives in Ledeberg  and moved here from Slovakia 20 years ago. Belgium is friendly and easy and she experiences no racism here she says. Also there’s a big Romany community and she’s been able to get work singing and raise her 3 daughters. One of them now lives in London and she’s just arrived on the train so we have a 3 way English Slovakian Flemish thing going on. Blanca also writes songs so we plan where the one she says she could write for The swamp could go. I realise later that today is International Women’s Day.

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The Brusselsepoortstraat, central leg of the score, has had folk and goods pass up and down from city centre to river and port and over to Ledeberg for centuries. Now a noisy road for trams and bikes there’s the Hollainhof modern social housing complex, a monk’s cloisters, timelab, Exotica Supermarket, a Nektar producing store and the production centre of Roomer - an elderflower based aperitif based on the grandmother’s recipe of brothers Jeroen & Maarten. M tells the tale including the essential harvesting of blooms at just the right moment and the reciting of the 8 worded mantra to soothe the spirit of the elder, oh she who sits at the border of life and death. Perfect. Plus these brewing vats chant the most delicious of tones with a high frequency purr of a fluctuation. If the sound stops, the brew loses its joojoo. Our ingredients gather.

The score grows. We’ve navigated a canalside strand (lhs) from the Candy Store at Vooruit, (bike HQ for the swamp once running) which was a map & cerebral choice after looking for a route to Ledeberg. In reality it couldn’t be more perfect. A quiet and easy pedal that flows away from Vooruit and city centre noise, revealing the unknown backsides of  familiar facades and variations in time through architecture. Then  a powerful viewpoint at a split in the Schelde river past the Muink park with the remains of the oldest tree and the 10 benches named after the final Zoo animals (closed 1914) and a bike pass under noise of the highway and bang into the quiet of historic neighbourhood Ledeberg. This area houses more people per sq m with than anywhere else in Belgium, and on the lowest incomes.

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Hot off the Eurostar and pedalling through pouring rain into the welcoming arms of the World Choir rehearsing at the Peace Hall, Ghent. Franck, centre, lives in Lederberg, the area of the city that’s providing so much enthusiastic material and support for  ‘The Swamp that was’, the bicycle opera I’m developing here. This is the start of research week two, to gather and map compositional material, so I’m recording, assisted by Els Viaene. The choir is directed by local Bolivian vocalist Anna, they practice South African, Nicaraguan and  Greenham Common(!) protest songs. Then pack mics and a fast wet pedal to what has to be the social and musical antithesis. The Ledebirds, in their weekly rehearsal. Word is out that we’re here and the room is packed. Stirring gypsy tunes from Slovakia and more.  Gut smiling stuff. And the only common language these neighbours share. 

Three Sonic Beds are spread over the floor of an Essex barn having an overhaul, with Sonic Bed_Scotland receiving the de-luxe treatment.  It’s going to ZKM, Karlsruhe for the’ Sound Art. Sound as a Medium of Art’ show, opening March 16th to January 6th 2013 and will be playing Bend(2005) by Matthews and Omnht(1970) by Radigue. 

At Culture Lab, Newcastle to work with Dr Adam on hammerhead shark movement to make ‘ You might come out of the water every time singing.’  We are mapping the latitude, longitude and depth measurements of six Sphyrna lewini in the Galapagos archipelago February 2009, tracked by James Ketchum of University Davis, California.  Its the first time I’ve moved the underwater recordings I made there through such a system. Revealing. I’m also developing portable listening enhancer attachments for visitors. All to be revealed on May 4th at the Bluecoat, Liverpool.  INFO.

In residence at timelab, Ghent with developer Wolfgang Hauptfleisch to begin the design and build and compositional plan for  ‘The swamp that was – a bicycle opera from the ground of Ganda.’   We had a meeting tonight with members of the local community to find out how much they might want to contribute. Amazing. 14 people came, all active locally in music, architecture, history, cooking, potent alcoholic brew making, the library, and city council. And yes, everyone keen to get involved. This is what I call collaboration.

Yird Muin Starn composition steams ahead. Mandy has sent an eight verse epic, ‘ It Would Take Eight Years to Fly to the Sun from Earth in Concorde Travelling Faster Than the Speed of Sound’ that has such a rhythm in it that I spent yesterday pumping out a rap. Perfect Sunday activity. Today, however, reveals potential for male Scottish vocals, so artist/poet Robbie Harris comes to play. Intriguing how the meaning of words change when you hear someone else make sense of them. Verse 8 reveals a metallic skinned multi-headed humanoid, neither man nor woman, still breeding and foraging for food up on that nuclear star, our SUN. 

2012 kicks off  in the studio. Last year made discovery time out in the field, so this year there are four major pieces to realize. Good. Finally time to make music again.

First, a star inspired suite for Yird Muin Starn, the star gazing shelter project in the Galloway forest, with Mandy McIntosh. I am working with Adam Parkinson  to enable the sonification of constellation data to melody. My sound sources are forest, bog and burn recordings as well as a digital synthesizer I’ve devised. It’s new and endless territory and already producing exciting results.  I also work with Adam on the salmon opera  Where are the wild ones?,  so shift from water to cosmos is merely expansive. 2012 let’s go.