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.