Stone sound

The original field recording was fed into a granular sculpting sampler to create bell like arpeggiated lines. Next, I chopped the field recording to extract key parts, intimate vocal moments, a solid stone hit rhythm and laughter. Isolated stone “hits” became drum parts, replayed and resampled then slowed. 

They began to sound like ghost drums, closing doors or belated fireworks. I recreated the rhythms, striking flints collected from Norfolk beaches and in a simple act connected across time for a moment, integrating them into the final track. I played modular synth parts, stereo panned over the recording, adding high tones and static improvised, sonic scribble. 

The final completed track has a dream like quality with a foggy, lost ambient crackle and haze. Voices drift in and out of the track, there is laughter as stones are struck and connect us through time.

Women and grinding stones reimagined by Andy Billington.

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Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds