Letters From Mouse featuring Dr Nigel Meredith St Swithin’s Day Storm
Vinyl Catalogue Number: SUBEX00096
Download Catalogue Number: SUBEX00097
General Release Date: 24/02/2023
Steven Anderson’s previous Letters From Mouse albums have been focused squarely on the sonic identities of specific localities – his back garden (‘An Gàrradh'), the stomping grounds of Rabbie Burns (‘Tarbolton Bachelors Club’) – but St. Swithin’s Day Storm eavesdrops on something far bigger. Working with Nigel Meredith, a space weather research scientist at the British Antarctic Survey who he had previously worked with on the bonus track ‘Confused By The Simple’ from ‘An Gàrradh’, Anderson used recordings of ‘space weather’ from a geomagnetic storm in 2012. These sounds were captured by the very low frequency receiver at the Halley VI Research Station, operated by the British Antarctic Survey, in Antarctica alongside Anderson’s own modular synth structures.
“Space weather events are natural phenomena, driven by the Sun, that can affect technological systems in space and on the ground,” explains Meredith, whose voice can be heard across ‘St Swithin’s Day Storm’. “The Sun is an active star, with frequent explosions on its surface, sending bursts of charged particles and magnetic fields out into space. If they're directed towards Earth, when they reach us, they can tear open the Earth’s magnetic field, giving rise to a geomagnetic storm. Such storms are accompanied by many effects in near-Earth space, including beautiful aurora displays and the generation of natural radio waves known as chorus emissions – so called, because when played back as audio, they often resemble the twittering of birds in the dawn chorus. They also have the power to disrupt our technological systems, including satellites, communications, aviation and power grids.”
Meredith has been working with musicians and artists since 2018 to incorporate recordings from Halley into compositions as part of a data-as-art outreach project called Sounds Of Space www.bas.ac.uk/project/sounds-of-space/. For his collaboration with Letters From Mouse, he found a previously unused sequence of space weather recordings from a geomagnetic storm centred on St. Swithin’s Day in 2012.
Anderson takes us on a journey through the phases of the storm’s progression – initial, main and recovery – using the distinctive sounds that the Halley receiver yields: spherics, which appear as crackles and pops; whistlers, descending tones caused by lightning strikes; chorus, which evoke birdsong. “I really wanted to harness the science behind this,” says Anderson. “I wanted get the sounds front and centre and really feature them. They’re in an unadulterated, raw form, but also heavily doctored. A lot of them have been run as samples into the modular system, and mangled in weird and wonderful ways.” In Anderson’s hands, the spherics form the basis of rhythms, and the chorus becomes mysterious and rapturous melodies.
Over these raw or manipulated sounds, Meredith delivers an educational explanation of space weather and how it can impact life on Earth. “As a society we are increasingly reliant on satellites for a wide variety of applications, including communications, navigation, Earth observation and defence,” he explains. “For example, since 2016 the number of operational satellites has grown from around 1,300 to over 5,000 today. This ever-growing infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to the potentially damaging effects of space weather.”
Mat Smith
Electronic Sound
This work has been developed in collaboration with British Antarctic Survey
Music written, performed & produced by Steven Anderson (Letters From Mouse)
VLF signals recorded by the Halley VLF receiver (British Antarctic Survey)
Voiceover by Dr Nigel Meredith (British Antarctic Survey)
Mastering by Antony Ryan (Redredpaw)
Design by Dan Seville (Subexotic)
Vinyl record centre label adapted from original photograph 'Sunset over the British Antarctic Survey's Halley VI Research Station on the Brunt Ice Shelf Antarctica' by Tom Welsh
