Notes from walking the four rants

I have made a previous post from this – here is my basic set of notes about my conduct of the Rants.

Up at 04:30, on site just before 06:00 and walking by about 06:20. Initial dismay whilst changing into my boots as I am being bitten by tiny black droplets of insects and I have no repellent. On with a beanie hat to give a physical barrier. Connect my kit, lock the car and set off only to find I have a marked creak from my rucksack. Unable to make it stop I walk back to the car and swap to a smaller, frameless rucksack that I have tried out the weekend before. It is slightly less comfy but silent.

The first leg is the Salter’s Way almost to the start of the open-access land then a hop over the fence to the ditch at the edge of the crop field. The path is heavily overgrown and wet with dew. I am, from the knees down, sodden.
There is a view over the upper Aln valley down to the Simonsides and across towards the coast. A gentle breeze and overcast sky (although this will clear). Pretty quiet with occasional birdsong and sheep.

uphill, crop field, hawthorn, dew-wet grass, drystone wall

Rant 1 Step 1
Very still. The wind barely moving the grass heads as they poke up amongst the oats. Distant chaffinch, wood pigeon – coo coo cooo coo coo – trala lah trallooah. The conversation of the sheep – naaah naaah. Occasional passing of a fly. Two hawthorn hedges, several plantations, down to the valley, rolling fields. Distant wood, bottom edges of the trees shaved off, grazed away, a low-level ceiling before the roof of the trees takes over. Drystone wall, capstones cemented in place, dark grey of the stone obliterated by the pale green-grey of the lichen, occasionally yellow.

Rant 1 Step 1 to Step 2 – along the edge of farm and fell then up to the edge of a conifer plantation. The way passes along a line of very old mature trees – Oak, Hornbeam – presumably marking an old way on the Prendwick estate. The plantation is part of the Prendwick estate shooting activities, heavily fenced – head high plus electric fencing. Dark interiors, surprisingly few gamebirds in evidence. Here the view is lower with other plantations – Four Doors, Churchbrae, Southbraes. The main birds calling and flying are wood pigeons.

Rant 1 Step 2

conifers, fenced plantation, game bird pens, valley burn
Long view across to low cloud on the hills. Cooing of the wood pigeon. Low thrum of the wind through pines. Distant wakening of the farm. Quiet call of the crows.

Rant 1 Step 2 to Step 3, the single longest step down to the south of “the island”. Back down the slope and over the Prendwick Burn, before the rough pasture, slow climb to the Salter’s Road. Down the hill to the site of the mediaeval village and east to the road junction. Crossing directly over the road and then wading the nascent Aln. The field is running with ewes and their lambs, lots of bleating as they stop/start run back and forth. The track goes up a slow gentle hill through two gates and a stockyard. Further up the hill three hares run from the path into the field and disappear over a low rise. Carrying on there is a gate in the wall and then a sharp left turn to start tracing the edge of the large crop field. Skylarks are flying in and out of the crop; one is moving ahead of me sequentially perching on fence posts before it finally leaves. At least two are singing; small dark jewels suspended in the sky by the thread of their song. At the junction with the track the way is to the right and along for about 400 m before moving to the site in the field to the south.

Rant 1 Step 3 
water trough, skylarks, crops, tyre lanes, distant road

Rant 1 Step 3 to Step 4 – I walk down the hill, through the gate at the bottom of the Hawthorne hedge and on through the buildings Scrainwood Farm. Walking into the field I follow the tire tracks which are symmetrically etched across the field until I reach the next recording site. Here land is lower; I have crossed the watershed between the Aln and the Coquet, the fields are full of crops, the woods are full of thrushes singing.

Rant 1 Step 4 

thrush song, solid wheat, farm, road, fence

Quiet rustle of the heads of the wheat as they rock in unison in the wind. The monotonous cooing of the collared doves. Distant blackbird demonstrating flutey song. Background hum of insects, a low drone.

Rant 1 Step 4 to Rant 2 Step 1. With rant one complete the way now goes north along the road. The next site is in the middle of a crop field and inaccessible. Whilst I record at the nearest point I will not use the recording.

roadside, crop, house, swallows

Rant 2 Step 1

Rant 2 Step 1 to Step 2. Rant two continues back at the Salters Road, so the way is along the road and then taking a shortcut which goes directly through the site of the remains of Alnham Castle. Stepping across the river Aln and over the wall I walk back up the Salter’s way to the edge of the moorland, turn to the north-east and the next site is amongst the trees of the ancient Avenue.

Rant 2 Step 2
shelter, old trees, fence, edge

Rant 2 Step 2 to Step 3 – Turning back on myself I retrace my steps towards the top the Salter’s Road. This time I continue on and go over the top of the hill descending towards the valley of a stream that will eventually flow into the Scrainwood burn. My destination is 300 m into the field that contains a herd of cows with their calves, still small, and a single Charolaise bull. He shows no interest in me and the heifers have moved their calves away and stand at a safe distance watching me. I’m standing in the middle the blog and have made sure that move slowly, I know where my nearest escape routes are should either the heifers or the bull become overly interested.

Rant 2 Step 3

bog, slow, hill, larks
Freshening wind cooling against the exertions of the walk. Terratorial skylarks suspended by the thread of their song. Anxious heifers shepherding their calves around the field keeping them away from me. I make sure to move slowly so that I don’t startle them. They begin to feed again after I leave. The large bull stays on the ridge, utterly disinterested. More intent on keeping up with the small group of heifers than he is engaging with me.

Rant 2 Step 3 to Step 4. I climb out of the field and retrace my steps to the top of the Salters Road and then down the hill once more. The final site for Rant Two is back at the bottom of the island. In fact it is on the southern limit. The way takes me back over the site of the castle, onto the road, across the watershed once more and down to Scrainwood farm going southeast at Scrainwood and down a track following the path of the Scrainwood Burn I reach a point close to the site which is inaccessible in a field of flax.
(I record as close as I can. The recorder battery goes flat and I have to return to the car and come back with a fresh supply of batteries – 2 ½ miles I didn’t need to walk.)

Rant 2 Step 4

flax, gate, dense grown, river valley

Rant 2 Step 4 to Rant 3 Step 1. This start for Rant 3 is very close – through the gate up to a gap in the hawthorn hedge where I follow a vague track through the shrubbery and stand on the soil of the field.

Rant 3 Step 1
hawthorn hedge, scrainwood farm, crop cover, partridge

The umbels of cow parsley starting to rise and spread above the nettles; sweet cicely going over. Distant crows. The fluctuating, undulating hum of insect pollinators as they go about their work.

Rant 3 Step 1 to Rant 3 Step 2 – up by Castle Hill and so the walk goes back through the farm, then follows the burn up to Hazleton Rig, through Hazleton rig Plantation across to Castle Hill and on into a hay meadow to the north east. The plantation is cool and quiet; sound is dampened by the close pine trees and the moist earth. I have to pick my way through an obstructed track for the second half the plantation walk.

Rant 3 Step 2
grass meadow, clover, sheep, mowing hay

Rant 3 Step 3 is back over the Prendwick Burn. I can cross country walk through the gap between Pennylaw’s South and Pennylaw’s North plantations to the top of the Salters Road. I retrace my steps along the ancient line of trees, cross the Prendwick burn and walked diagonally over the field to the edge of the plantation.

Rant 3 Step 3
plantation, pheasant, wood pigeon, close trees

Rant 3 Step 4 is back by the site of the ancient mediaeval village so I am once again retracing my steps to the top of the Salters Road down the hill. Turning right over the cattle grid to the roadside site. Another herd of cattle is loose in the field and again they move slowly away from me.

Rant 3 Step 4
downhill, road, cows, stream

Rant 4 – the way is straight up the hill, ignoring the road, heading for Castle Hill. Through the gate and across the field I reach the site.

Rant 4 Step 1
uphill, hairpin bends, ringing gate

Rant 4 Step 2 is in the middle of a field close to Prendwick Farm. I have not been able to get a view of this field and so don’t know if it will be a crop field and inaccessible to me. I take the slightly easier route along the road and get to the bottom of the field at the east end of Southbraes Plantation. It is a pasture field with flocks of shorn sheep and about 30 cows. I walk up the field to the site at the north end of it.

Rant 4 Step 2
grass, shearing, sheep, cows, avenue

Rant 4 Step 2 to Step 3 – The remaining two sites are very close together and back towards Castle Hill. From where I am the quickest route is north to a track that runs through the Prendwick Estate at the right angle bend I carry straight on and walk the southern margin of a wheat field to get back onto the Salter’s Road. From here I walk up to the top of Pennylaws South Plantation and then climb the wall to walk the rough pasture to the site to the west of Pennylaws North Plantation.

Rant 4 Step 3
rough pasture, trees

To reach the final site I skirt the top of Pennylaws North Plantation and walk towards the wall that is the west boundary of the Salter’s Road. The site is at the same level as the very first site but on rough pasture the site is easy to find.

Rant 4 Step 4
wall, hawthorn, boulder

I climbed the wall, step onto the Salters Road and for the last time walk down the hill.

I was delighted to have a piece of work selected through peer review for the international Sound+Environment 2017 Conference at the University of Hull as part of Hull’s tenure as UK City of Culture.  These are my reflections on the overall experience.

Location: 4 Island Reels was installed in Ensemble Room 2. It was a good room, a decent size and good acoustic properties.  It took an hour to install it with two assistants and 30 minutes to take down.

Technicalities: The set up was a centrally placed table with the laptop and soundcard and four outward facing speakers set off from the tables’ corners.  Outward facing speakers, denying a listener a single spot to listen was an unusual set up, and one that seemed to confuse some listeners.

The work lasted 20 minutes and ran three times each hour on a continuous loop.  In general, it ran OK but there is a problem with something in the setup causing momentary drop out of the sound producing an intrusive ‘click’ (I am looking into what causes this; possibly buffering).

Aesthetics: The piece worked, and looked and sounded, as I wished it to.

On reflection, the place of walking in the method and the walk (and thus sense of movement) is not sufficiently apparent and I will seek to change this in any subsequent works using the same method.  However, some of the decisions about the balance of the various parts was driven by the organisers requirement of a shorter (15-20 minute) piece.  My ideal installation of this piece would be quite a bit longer.

Attendance and audience engagement with the piece: Twenty five members of the conference came through the room, plus five of the student helpers who were keen to hear the work.  This was a disappointingly low number given that there were about 120 people registered at the conference.  A major reason was that the work was scheduled for Saturday and in the morning there were parallel paper sessions and the afternoon was given over to works in Hull city centre and so, once the papers finished, most people left the venue without coming to the installations.

Of those who came to listen most stayed for about half the piece.  Four people stayed for the whole work. I don’t know how many people ‘got’ the underlying idea of the piece; most people took a copy of the concertina-fold booklet; a few people read the poems.  Everyone who offered a view was positive about the work.

I didn’t get a sense that lots of people were moving from speaker to speaker listening for differences or similarities.  However, people did have to walk around the room which was the idea behind the setup.

A couple of conversations with people about the piece prompted some new ideas for things I could do.

Overall it was a good experience.