Tag Archives: Driving Creek Railway

DSLB Driving Creek installation live

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For the month of November in 2023, Kieran and I headed to the Coromandel to be Artists-in-Residence at Driving Creek Railway and Pottery. The fruit of those 4 weeks for me was the album Driving Creek, a multi-layered soundscape mapping dawn til dusk.

For the potters-in-residence, there is a provocation to leave a piece of work. As someone who works with sound, leaving an artefact took a bit more thinking. But now Driving Creek, the album, is “installed” in the Driving Creek, the location and community. A poster (see below) with a QR code takes listeners to the album. Tourists can listen whilst waiting for the train, residents and staff can listen whilst doing the dishes, laying rails, or throwing pots. Everyone can listen for free, and for a small fee, the album can be downloaded.

The poster has been up for a few days, and we can see from the stats that people are dipping in for a listen.

If you haven’t had a listen, we’d welcome your ears. The album has been warmly received, and I think it’s the best solo work I’ve made to date.

And here’s the poster with a photo of me recording the “Down Pour” track above, using all the discarded cups.

Many thanks to Kieran for the design of the poster, to Callum for the thumbs up and to Riccardo for herding cats and getting the posters up.

Chimney Fire

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Midway through the Driving Creek Residency we were lucky to be invited by Laurie Steer to perform fur the firing of a kiln… nor specifically for the fire.

The firing started early in the morning, we got asked mid-morning and set up around tea time. We set off into the evening playing three sets that reached crescendo close to midnight.

This video is the final two minutes of playing, set to an almost chronological montage of photo and film.

It was an extraordinary event to participate in. The kiln soared beyond 1000°c. The practice of attending to such a beast seemed almost ritualistic. And joy and uncertainty mingled, apparently nothing is predictable when it comes to this craft process. It is yet unknown what the state and nature of the Pottery looks like, the sarcophagus has yet to be opened.

The DCResidence

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We have found ourselves in the very lucky situation to have the pleasure to spend four weeks at DCR, Driving Creek Railway. Typically DCR hosts assist residencies for potters and Pottery enthusiasts. However, they wish to expand the scope of artistic disciplines that make use of their facilities, and that wish had enabled us to be able to spend the next month focusing on a number of music projects.

DCR was established by Potter Barry Brickell, a singular individual with an extremely driven passion for pots and mud. He undertook and facilitated the building of many buildings, work stations, and kilns. He was also an avid train enthusiast and hand built a trainline through re-established native forest. The primary function of the line was to gather clay uphill and return it to the studio to be created into pots, cups, and sculptures.

Over the next four weeks, we will be posting photos, footage, and other bits of interest. We will be making both individually and together.

Photo of Kieran's music set-up in an old wooden train cartridge, typically used as accommodation
Painting of Potter Barry Brickell, painted on irregular shaped board, mounted on raw wood wall