This spring saw London's Somerset House host River Sounding, a piece of work by sound artist Bill Fontana. Visitors were invited on a journey through the hidden sound worlds of the River Thames.
This new work was made possible by Richmond Sound Design's brand new AudioBox™ II, which is capable of controlling up to 576 channels of audio using a variety of standard computer audio interfaces and represents a significant breakthrough in multichannel sound.
Fontana recorded a series of sounds along a hundred mile section of the Thames for the commission. Visitors were taken on a journey through Somerset House's subterranean spaces, which are normally closed to the public, and out to the Great Arch on the Embankment.
Along the way a soundtrack of the Thames was projected through loudspeakers, installed at river level in the hidden pathways beneath Somerset House's courtyard. The sounds included whistling buoys, steam pumps and rushing water at river locks. The sounds were played alongside Fontana's video images of the recording locations, which include Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast and the Thames Barrier.
Part of the installation's aim was to pay homage to Somerset House's connection to the river - Somerset House was originally built as a grand riverside palace in the sixteenth century. In the eighteenth century it became the home of Admiral Nelson's Navy Office, with boats entering through Somerset House's Great Arch.
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