Listen to the River

From 16th September to 13th October Hopeful Disruptions were in the Riverina for our first Collective Artist Residency. Earth Canvas in conjunction with Wagga Wagga Art Gallery hosted us for four weeks - two weeks camping on Regenerative Farms in the Mundarlo area and two weeks in the E3 Artspace Studio at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. Rochelle, Tracy and Will camped for a week on Yabtree West - Rebecca Gorman's Regenerative Farm and a week on Mundarlo - Nick and Dea Austin's Regenerative Farm - both on the banks of the mighty Marrambidya (Murrumbidgee River). For the second week we were joined by Jo Linley, a pioneering farmer who has been working with biodiversity and sustainable farming for over 30 years and now continues this work in the Clarence Valley. Our fourth core member Debby Taylor kept in touch with us via FaceTime chats around the campfire, helping us with reflections about being on Country and offering insights into our experiences on the land. We also collaborated with Jane Beattie who is a regenerative farming educator as we prepared for the Residency.

This album is the result of that experience. I made over 280 individual recordings (over 32 hours of soundscape material) - both longform and incidental at the two locations. I used a Zoom H6 portable recorder to record aerial sounds above the ground with a stereo matched pair of Sonorous Objects S04 Ultrasonic Omni mics, and an XYH-6 X/Y mic capsule, aquatic sounds below the water surface with an Aquarian Audio H2d hydrophone and soil vibrations below the ground with a LOM Geofón microphone.

During the studio time in the E3 Artspace at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery I curated these recordings into the 20 tracks of this album - Listen to the River. Some are longform recordings - having minimal or no intervention with the original sound file. Others are highly curated with layered sounds to produce a piece that tells a unique story of place.

Tracks 1-8 were recorded at 'Bottom River Picnic' - a paddock on Yabtree West, a 2263ha Regenerative Farm owned by Rebecca Gorman. The ninth track is a bridging piece and shares recordings from both Yabtree West and Mundarlo - the two Regenerative Farms. Tracks 10-19 were recorded at 'Point' - a padddock on Mundarlo, a 1450ha Regenerative Farm owned by Nick and Dea Austin. Track 20 is a bonus - recorded at Bibbaringa, a 990ha Regenerative Farm owned by Gillian Sanbrook on a field day visit to her property during the residency.

This album asks the listener to LISTEN to the river. 

Album cover art by Tracy Pateman