Magnet Bay Farm

Magnet Bay Farm is about fifteen minutes drive from Little River in Banks Peninsula, Aotearoa/New Zealand. I have stayed there three times in the last nine months and have grown to love the place.

My initial two visits were in order to rehearse for a national tour with the show Voices of our Ancestors - an exploration by three Ngai Tahu women, through story, sound and song, of histories both family and tribal. As we all lived in different parts of the country, it seemed fitting to come together for rehearsals on Ngai Tahu soil. We all shared ancestral linkages with Wairewa marae, and so it was a great privilege to be able to base at Magnet Bay Farm, which had recently been regifted back to Wairewa marae by farmer Jim Wright.

I wasn't very well on the first stay, and so wasn't up for a walk down the farm, but Mahina and Ariana went and came back very excited about the assortment of farm equipment (read here as 'sound-making objects').

The next time we visited, I was able to go for the walk - and certainly wasn't disappointed!! Fifty metres from the house it begins - yards and yards of farm equipment in various stages of repair - wire cages, sheds galore, a sheep transport trailer, 44 gallon drums, pots, old tractor, hap makers, a saw mill...it really iwas like heaven! That afternoon we walked from pile to pile and hit, scraped, and jumped on things. The next day I went back with an H2 zoom and over the course of a few hours recorded as many of the items as I could.

Mahina kicking a wee drum

Ariana with a metal sheet

Over a period of time I want to archive the sounds and explore them in combinations. I can't help feeling there is a piece of music to be made on-site. Robin and Ngaire, who now manage the farm on behalf of the marae, have certainly indicated there are stories to be told, and they are keen that Jim not be forgotten.


Here is the first sketch-combination of some of the sounds on Magnet Bay Farm.

sounds from my neighbourhood - the water tower

the water tower is on a hill at the back of a reserve behind our house. it's pretty much completely made of concrete but i took a contact mic to see what i could find.

pipe

a series of pipes run around the perimetre of the tower. i chose one and began tapping it - it has amazing overtones and a long sustain. the pipe itself doesn't make any sound, it's only when it's activated you get to hear the sounds travelling through it.




the first sound is from me scraping the outside of the pipe with my hands.

Pipe 2 by christinewhite

this sound is from circling the inside of the pipe with a stick.

Pipe 3 by christinewhite

steel casing

further around the water tower was the main stairwell to the top. at the base of the stair structure was a metal guard with a steel box mounted on it housing a padlock.


i had a lot of fun with this structure, running the back of a cello bow over it.

Steel box by christinewhite

i also placed the box inside the cavity of the box casing and moved it over the surface. this created a breath-like timbre with tonal changes.

Inside steel box by christinewhite

i was also able to pull a metal sheet around the casing which reverberated through it. this recording is complete with text message (DM tweet) from my partner Hinemoana in the wild west of wyoming.

Rattling the steel by christinewhite

landscape as musical score - playing the backyard

a fantastic project in line with my house study beginnings - this live improvisation by tristan louth-robins and sebastian tomczak using field recordings from their backyards. the material was processed in real-time using ableton live/plogue bidule.

more information about the work can be found on disquiet and tristan's blog. sebastian also has a blog here

floating walkway

one highlight of my trip to brisbane was the discovery of the floating walkway - an 870 metre walkway that floats on the river. as boats go past, the waves generated by them created movement on the walkway resulting in singing tones. This also combines with the footsteps of walkers, joggers, talkers and bird-life.

i recorded this environment using a lapel microphone which was inserted into a metal tube on the walkway.