Walking

A woman singing - haunting and lyrical then bursting into jagged, guttural sounds; a man speaking about memories of the port; another voice saying she longs for quiet gardens; layers of singing and speaking are interwoven with splashes and seagulls – perhaps the sea or a river. The tracks come from different places and the conversations, sounds and singing reflect the character of that place: a lively Hong Kong market, a polluted waterway in Brooklyn, the labyrinthine skyways of Minneapolis, a bar with panoramic views of Porto, an East London beach…

British singer and sound artist Viv Corringham creates works that incorporate conversations with residents on walks, recordings of ambient sounds and her own improvised singing. These relate to her very successful ongoing project Shadow-walks, which has been widely presented from New York to Portugal to Hong Kong. Now the works have been gathered together for this album.

Viv Corringham has walked with local inhabitants in many countries and different continents, asking them to lead her on a special walk that has meaning for them. Later she takes a solo walk along the same route, trying to sense the person’s traces on the path and to make these traces audible through her own improvised singing. Partly inspired by the Aboriginal songlines and the Kaluli song paths, these works “trace a kind of metaphorical path through time and space, which define a place.” (Ulster Publishing Almanac)