Where did the impetus for River Sounding come from?
‘I’d been a frequent visitor to London because of projects at Big Ben, Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge, so I’ve spent a lot of time on the Thames. Somerset House gave me the opportunity to make a piece about the river, but also to consider the strange history of that building and its relationship to the water. Originally there was a sixteenth-century palace on that site and then, in the eighteenth century, Admiral Nelson would view the design of ships from his offices there, because the building opened straight on to the river in those days.’ How did you pick your locations from 100 miles of river? ‘Well, I guess the sound locations that I was interested in are not the obvious ones, but those that are hidden or that nobody hears, like the bell at the very end of Southend pier. And while this isn’t a tourist’s view of the Thames, I did put vibration sensors on the hull of HMS Belfast to listen to how the ship reacted to the river going by. I made lots of underwater recordings with
