‘I Pretend Too Much’: Special Audio Issue, Mirror Lamp Press, October 2024
Artists/ writers: Andrea Bjurström, Freya Dooley, Isadora Epstein, Edy Fung, Rachel Heavey, Sophie Robinson
ed. Gwen Burlington and Eoghan McIntyre
You can listen to the entire issue on the MLP website. It was also previously broadcast on Dublin Radio and Resonance FM.
Track List
0.00 The Great Pretender (written by Buck Ram) by Sam Cooke, 1960. From the album Hits of the 50's, RCA Victor. (Vocal Isolated edit)
03.28 Soft Selves by Edy Fung. Text by Andrea Bjurström
13.20 Send in the Clowns by Sophie Robinson
20.58 The Double by Freya Dooley
38.46 Word Builder by Rachel Heavey
49.15 A Frog Prepares by Isadora Epstein. Music and sound production by Davy Kehoe
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“This special edition brings together a collection of original works inspired by the 1950s song "The Great Pretender," originally performed by The Platters, weaving through themes of identity, imitation, and performance.
Freya Dooley’s The Double looks at inauthenticity and emotional labour, following a supermarket cashier’s imagined interactions with a shoplifting doppelgänger.
In A Frog Prepares, Isadora Epstein offers a retelling of a classic fairytale, with music and sound production by Davy Kehoe.
With Send in the Clowns, Sophie Robinson delivers a raw, reflective poem on heartbreak and self-betrayal, drawing inspiration from Stephen Sondheim’s sad clown archetype.
Edy Fungs’s text-sound composition Soft Selves examines identity and unpredictability in music, featuring words by Andrea Bjurstöm.
The glitchy sounds of a Vtech computer paired with Rachel Heavey’s childhood voice creates a nostalgic and experimental atmosphere in Word Builder.”
Mirror Lamp Press is a digital publishing project that explores the intersection of art and literature through the newly commissioned work of artists and writers.
Cover image: Untitled (2021) by Eoghan McIntyre, digital drawing
Sound Design for TROI/TROSI, two pieces by Dylan Huw speculating upon ways of narrating the overwhelming nature of life and labour in times conditioned by ecological collapse.
Drawing on long-term research, Dylan Huw’s writing is currently presented as a pair of looping sound works in the group exhibition gludafael / holdfast at Gylnn Vivian Gallery, Swansea (Nov 2023- March 2024). The installation is minimal and intimate, inviting the listener to lean in close.
The two pieces foreground thinking that is restless, queer, networked, tired, turned over and recirculated. It has emerged from fever dreams and the earliest surviving photograph of a bonfire (taken near Swansea in 1853) to scroll through the ubiquity of images of fire and destruction in everyday visual culture.
TROI TROSI (3 mins)
This piece, spoken in Welsh and constructed entirely in questions, departs from a fever dream about a sunset perceived through a boyfriend’s phone screen.
The soundscape builds a soft chorus from Dylan’s own hums and pensive vocal intonations; centering his voice introspectively in the context of the wider Troi Trosi publication project, which gently holds together a polyphony of voices and perspectives on fatigue and artistic labour within the conditions of an exhausted climate.
TROI TROSI (4 mins)
This piece, spoken in English, narrates the writer’s strained attempts to write about the world's earliest known photograph of a bonfire, taken by John Dillwyn Llewelyn near Swansea in 1853.
The work features a quote from art historian Pamela M. Lee’s introduction to the Spring 2021 special of October on burnout. The soundscape layers lurching rhythms and sculpted field recordings of Dylan's voice and crackling fire, drawing on themes of time, depletion and burnout in the writing.
About the exhibition
gludafael / holdfast is a group exhibition navigating art’s capacity to respond to the climate emergency. The exhibition speaks to the experiences of individuals and communities, and the inequities and absurdities of the systems that organise us and the world.
More info here
About Dyan Huw
Dylan Huw is a writer, critic and convenor of artistic programmes. He writes for publications including Artforum, Frieze and O’r Pedwar Gwynt, and collaborates regularly with Peak Cymru. He is currently developing a curatorial project on queer vocabulary-making in and across minor/itised language cultures, supported by the Jerwood New Work Fund and Wales Arts International.
Guest Mix for Synaptic Island on Resonance FM
Sat 23 June 2022
2021
Sound design for the audio version of Ululations — a publication of writing commissioned by Peak Cymru in response to Alberta Whittle’s Art Night commission at Platfform 2.
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ululations is a publication, in print and sound, of newly commissioned writing by Kandace Siobhan Walker, Nia Morais and Fin Jordão with creative translations by Elan Grug Muse, produced by Peak Cymru with Freya Dooley and Mark El-khatib.
The publication is a polyphonic response to Alberta Whittle’s Creating dangerously (we-I insist!): a trilogy of films screened during Summer 2021 at Platfform 2, a new cultural space on the southbound side of Abergavenny Train Station on the edge of the Black Mountains.
This audio version of ululations - produced in collaboration with artist Freya Dooley - features the voices of co-editor Dylan Huw and contributors Kandace Siobhan Walker, Nia Morais and Fin Jordão alongside field recordings of Alberta Whittle’s Art Night 2021 commission HOLDING THE LINE: a refrain in two parts at Platfform 2. With gratitude to Alberta Whittle, Art Night, Transport for Wales and Arts Council Wales.
To read the transcript of this broadcast, learn more about ululations and plan your visit to Creating dangerously (we-I insist!) at Platfform 2, please go to our website: peakcymru.org
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Mae ululations yn gyhoeddiad, mewn print a sain, o sgwennu newydd sbon gan Kandace Siobhan Walker, Nia Morais a Fin Jordão, gyda chyfieithiadau creadigol gan Elan Grug Muse, wedi ei gynhyrchu gan Peak Cymru gyda Freya Dooley a Mark El-khatib.
Mae’r llyfryn yn ymateb aml-leisiol i Creating dangerously (we-I insist!) gan Alberta Whittle, trioleg o ffilmiau sy’n cael ei arddangos yn ystod haf 2021 ar Blatfform 2: gofod celfyddydol newydd ar ochr ddeheuol Gorsaf Drenau’r Fenni, ar ymyl y Mynyddoedd Duon.
Mae fersiwn sain ululations - wedi’i gynhyrchu gyda’r artist Freya Dooley - yn cynnwys lleisiau’r cyd-olygydd Dylan Huw a’r cyfrannwyr Kandace Siobhan Walker, Nia Morais a Fin Jordão, ynghŷd â recordiadau maes o gomisiwn Art Night 2021 Alberta Whttle, HOLDING THE LINE: a refrain in two parts, ar Blatfform 2. Hoffai Peak ddiolch o galon i Alberta Whittle, Art Night, Trafnidiaeth Cymru a Chyngor Celfyddydau Cymru.
I ddarllen trawsgrifiad o’r darllediad, i ddysgu mwy am ululations ac i drefnu’ch ymweliad i Creating dangerously (we-I insist!) a Phlatfform 2, ewch i’n gwefan: peakcymru.org
9am Sunday 20 June - 9am Monday 21 June 2021
Solstice Radio is an annual 24 hour live online sound broadcast to celebrate the Summer Solstice, commissioned by Made in Roath. The 2021 edition is programmed by Freya Dooley and Cinzia Mutigli in collaboration with a group of 16-25 year old women and non-binary artists, DJs and producers under the collective ‘Sounding Out’, who have been meeting regularly over the last few months to share and develop their broad practices in sound. The members are: Rosie Clement Hennion, Lauren Clifford-Keane, Heledd Evans, Lorelei Hacking, Al Lewis, Courtney Paige-Purnell and Tess Wood.
Together we have compiled a selection of soundscapes, stories, music, readings and conversations to mark the longest day of the year. Each member of the group has produced a new segment for the broadcast and invited contributors who connect an eclectic mix of collaborative sounds and polyphonic voices.
Feat. contributions by and the voices of:
Courtney-Paige Purnell (Blondy) feat. the Ladies of Rage network and many others; Tess Wood; Lauren Clifford-Keane; Lorelei Hacking; Alek Lewis; Heledd Evans; Rosie Clement Hennion feat. interviews with Beau Beakhouse & Sadia Pineda Hameed, Gwenda Evans, Gweni Llwyd, Wendy Short and Yewande YoYo Odunubi; Synaptic Island; P~Wave (Poppy Moroney); Foldable Sounds; Charlotte Grayland; Jenny Moore; Emma Daman Thomas; Joseph Bond; Phoebe Davies; Studio Cybi (Rebecca Gould & Iwan Lewis); Emily Pope; LUMIN RADIO feat. Gantala Press, Jade Montserrat, Hanan Issa, Josèfa Ntjam and Isola Tong; Cult of Doris (Jude Thoburn-Price); Radio Platfform; TOMA; Artes Mundi 9 artists and more to be announced…
Image: Risograph print by Lauren Clifford-Keane
09/23/21
Freya Dooley
Temporary Commons
ASC StudiosLondon
Listen here
Temporary Commons is a meandering, fictional narrative with a polyphonic soundtrack, which weaves together dodgy plumbing, turbulent neighbours, unpredictable weather, canned laughter, and an invasive landlord. In a series of scenes set within the walls of a rented terraced house, the protagonist recounts the tension of hidden leaks, unstable structures and their own futile attempts at control and connection. Watery and sonic leakage presents fleeting moments of communion between the party wall…the harmony and discord, the comfort and irritation, the shared and shifted responsibility of living alongside others. As it wheezes and strains under pressure, the house becomes another character: both eavesdropping and overheard as it slowly sinks into uneven ground. The central score is produced in collaboration with musician and artist Emma Daman Thomas.
Temporary Commons was originally commissioned by Jerwood Arts for Jerwood Solo Presentations, 2021. The original iteration was presented as a multi-channel sound installation, and was remixed as a stereo version for broadcast.
Credits: Written and narrated by Freya Dooley / Music by Emma Daman Thomas and Freya Dooley / Vocals by Emma Daman Thomas / Additional narration by Rebecca Knowles / Mix engineering by Freya Dooley / With thanks to the Jerwood Arts team and the Arts Council of Wales.
1 hour, audio broadcast, captions available
Video features captioned excerpts of the work
I discuss Temporary Commons, my commission for Jerwood Solo Presentations 2021, with Helen Frosi who is an interdisciplinary artist-curator, producer and Director of SoundFjord – a nomadic curatorial platform focused on sound-related research and practice.
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Temporary Commons is an immersive multi-channel sound installation that describes experiences of connection, untethering, and futile attempts at control within the porous walls of a rented terrace house. A meandering fictional narrative voiced by the artist weaves together dodgy plumbing, turbulent neighbours, bad weather, canned laughter, and an invasive landlord. The tension of hidden leaks and unstable structures is a stage for reflections on the harmony and discord of living alongside others.
About Helen Frosi
Helen Frosi is an interdisciplinary artist-curator and producer whose practice pivots around ecological thought, poetics, aspects of gifting and alternative forms of economy, with a focus on the creative, social, and political dimension of sound, hearing and listening. Her practice manifests as process, and necessitates collaborative, cross-disciplinary work, communal projects and collective activities.
Helen curates Longplayer Day, a festival focusing on time, duration and long-term and ecological thinking with James Bulley, and is co-curator of auraldiversities, an ongoing series of workshops and seminars on the ‘auraldiverse turn’ in the arts and humanities. Her latest project, EnCOUnTErs, sits at the nexus between art and ecology, with a focus on the sonic imagination. Helen is Director of SoundFjord a nomadic curatorial platform focused on sound-related research and practice, Founder of Visible Near Midnight Recordings for works that fall between the genre gaps, and is a visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London (Dept of Music). soundfjord.org
Well now, hold on / maybe I won’t go to sleep at all / and it’ll be a beautiful white night / or else I’ll collapse / completely…
24 hour live online radio broadcast over Summer Solstice in June 2020, programmed and produced in collaboration with Sam Hasler for Made in Roath.
Using the first 24 words (one word for each hour) of Frank O’Hara’s ‘Five Poems’ as our lengthy and meandering title, we’ll be compiling a selection of soundscapes, stories, broadcasts, music, readings and conversations to mark the longest day of the year. Each line from the poem will act as a loose theme for each segment, connecting an eclectic mix of sounds and voices.
The broadcast featured new and previously unheard works by Ashley Holmes, Jill McKnight, Rhiannon Lowe, Malachy Harvey, Nicola Singh, Fern Thomas, Tom Cardew and Lauren Clifford-Keane. These works will be available to listen back on the Made in Roath website archive soon.
We also played soundworks, mixes and readings contributed by artists Marie Malarie, Joseph Bond, Phoebe Davies, Cinzia Mutigli, Jon Ruddick, Synaptic Island, Antonia Dewhurst, Nia Metcalfe, Karl Price, Ben Ewart- Dean, Jess Akerman, Becca Thomas + Clare Charles, AJ Stockwell and Johana Hartwig and conversations between Nasima Begum and Ogechi Dimeke about the Aurora Collective at Trinity Centre Cardiff, and Ishah Speers and Carol Ivory about Mackintosh Community Gardens… We also shared a selection of 24 word poems contributed from an open call and played recordings of readings by Zadie Smith, Ursula K Leguin, Frank O’Hara, Audre Lourde, Anne Sexton, Maya Angelou, John Ashbery, Gertrude Stein, Anais Nin, Lisa Robertson and some other found material we liked the sound of.
This was a one-off broadcast but more information about the work and a document of the schedule can be found here.
LISTENING PARTY
Freya Dooley with Phoebe Davies and Ashley Holmes
Friday 5 April 2019, 6-9pm
An event as part of my solo exhibition Somewhere in the Crowd There’s You, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Listen to SOLO MIX by Ashley Holmes
Listen to CHORUS MIX by Phoebe Davies
Borrowing the model of a two-channel silent disco with commissioned mixes by artists Phoebe Davies and Ashley Holmes, The Listening Party created a social space for private listening. The event acts as a disruption to the exhibition ‘Somewhere in the crowd there’s you ‘, a multi-channel sound installation about the tensions, harmonies and discord between private feeling, public performance and group dynamics. The Listening Party invited collaborators, new voices and synchronicities to the installation.
Listening Party is a result of ongoing conversations between the three artists around music, sound and sound-tracking: the intimacy of listening as a way to alter or accompany mental, emotional and physical states.
A print by Freya Dooley which includes the written prompts and score for the event is available from Eastside Projects for the duration of the exhibition.
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This project is supported by the Arts Council of Wales.
Listening Session #11 // EARWORMS
Hosted with Synaptic Island, 16.04.19
I invited Synaptic Island to host a listening session at Chapter as part of the programme of events for The Song Settles Inside the Body It Borrows, my solo exhibition at Chapter, Cardiff, 2019
The theme is EARWORMS.
Participants were invited to join us for an evening of collective listening; to bring one track in response to the theme to share with the group. Synaptic Island are a collective of women and non-binary DJs.
Listen here
Earworms...
spreading,
hooks, riffs and multiples,
chewing over,
absorption,
blockages,
real and imagined
voices,
rhythms,
interruptions... 🐚
TRACKLIST
Julius Eastman - Stay On It
Bismuth - The slow dying of the Great Barrier Reef
Chris Watson - Oceanus Pacificus
Paul McCartney - Pipes of Peace
Terry Riley - You’re No Good
Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms
Savages - Fuckers
The Blow - Parenthasis
Swci Boscawen - Adar Y Nefoedd
Midori Takada - Crossing
Introduction To Meditation
Tough Matter w/ Ashley Holmes & Freya Dooley
NTS Radio, Manchester, 24.11.18
Monthly broadcast by Ashley Holmes, multidisciplinary artist based in Sheffield working across sound, installation, radio broadcasts and performance.
