An immersive electronic work made entirely of recordings of the bells that have rung out over the city of Hull for centuries.
Following rare access to the bell tower at Hull Minster in September 2021, this immersive electronic work is made entirely of recordings of the bells that have rung out over the city of Hull for centuries and of the clock mechanism that has marked that time. With live spatialisation across 24 speakers set up around the magnificent Hull Minster, this music delves deep into the resonances of the place and plays with the rich acoustics of the building.
Nightports is based on a simple rule of restriction: only sounds captured for a particular project can be used. Nothing else – no samples or synths or drum machines – though the sounds captured can be stretched, cut, morphed and twisted, ordered and reordered. All of the sounds of this performance come from Hull Minster. It is music in and of this special place.
This is a binaural audio mix, so listening on headphones is recommended.
Credits
Live performance filmed at Hull Minster on August 2nd 2022
Music – Nightports (Adam Martin and Mark Slater) (www.nightports.com)
Audio spatialisation, mixing and mastering – Matt Barnard
Lighting design – Tony Courts and James Bateman
Film production – Nathan Luke Films (https://www.nathanlukefilms.com/)
Director of photography – Nathan Luke Riley
Gimbal operator – Jonny Ridout
Best boy – Seb Santabarbara
Grip – Ben Woodhouse
Nightports (Mark Slater and Adam Martin) is supported by PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund. With kind support from Hull Minster and the University of Hull.
With special thanks to Robin Alden for ringing the bells on the original recordings in the bell tower in September 2021, and to Mark Keith and Alasdair Hutson for being so accommodating at Hull Minster.
Follow Nightports on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/nightportsmusic/), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/nightportsmusic), and Twitter (https://twitter.com/nightports).
Chapters
0:17 Hour/Begin
2:45 Carillon
4:10 Seek/Secure
9:51 Dans/Move
13:58 Clock
15:18 Quarter Past
15:37 Mechanics of Passing Time
18:51 Head/Space
24:23 Wood/Glass/Metal
29:22 Half Past/Half To
