Listening in…Dialect at Crosby Library

Have you ever held your ear to a seashell? Grimaced when hearing your own voice played back? Or perhaps you’ve experienced hearing loss or tinnitus?

Hearing and listening are deeply subjective experiences, shaped by our surroundings and personal histories but also by context and technology.

We invited Andrew to the library to lead a close-listening workshop with members of the public. Using stereo microphones we were able to listen in a much more acute way than the human hear normally allows. Whilst libraries are often thought of as places of quiet, we actually discovered a world of sound which our brains ordinarily tune out or can’t hear at all.

We then welcomed Andrew back to Crosby library for a one-off, site specific performance made with the recordings collected in the workshop. Andrew transferred the sounds onto analogue tape loops, and mixed them together live in the library space, crafting a mesmerising, hypnotic audio piece for library patrons.

Listen above to excerpts from the performance, plus an interview with Andrew outlining the project with one of our library assistants, Ben.

Andrew PM Hunt is a hugely prolific Merseyside performer and sound artist who, aside from work under his solo moniker Dialect, performs as part of Ex-Easter Island Head Raft of Trash and Land Trance. As Dialect he explores elements of chamber music, improvisation and electro-acoustic composition, and his debut album Advanced Myth was recently reissued by RVNG Intl. alongside his newest release Atlas of Green.

You can find more of Andrew’s solo work and projects he’s involved in here.