Sonic Darts 1 July 2024: Hogsmill River sound walk
This month Sonic Darts presents an hour long edit of a binaural field recording made by Paul Freeman a week prior to this transmission, walking the length of the Hogsmill River in South West London. The river is a rare chalk stream, one of only 210 in the world. It springs in Ewell Village and makes its way through suburban nature reserves, crossing under the occasional railway line and road until it joins the Thames at Kingston.
When making field recordings my approach is to acknowledge the presence of myself, the field recordist. I feel it’s important to remember that this is a curated presentation of a location, mediated by an individual making decisions on where to walk, what to record and what to keep in the edit. The document is not, and cannot be a true representation of the locality, for better or worse. As such, the recording maintains sonic traces of my presence; footsteps, breathing, the occasional mic handling noise and voice note to myself.
The recording was made using head mounted DPA 4060 omni lavalier microphones, recording into an Olympus LS100, using the binaural method, so for the full effect it’s recommended to listen on headphones. More information on the river Hogsmill can be found here: https://www.southeastriverstrust.org/hogsmill/
Photos from spring to mouth
