LEVIATHAN WHISPERS – MUSICAL ROOTS

Leviathan Whispers has evolved from along history of outdoor performances, collaborations, walks and musings. I have always loved playing outdoors and have many special places to play in. One of my favourites is the Horseshoe Bridge, built by Brunel, at the mouth of the Kennet in the Newtown part of Reading. The rich acoustics, river sounds and the singing of the nearby Gasworks, make for a magical acoustic, interspersed by the rumblings of trains overhead. Jonathan has often recorded me there; it is one of his special places. It was also important to the much-missed artist Pete Hay. Pete's work and life is an important inspiration to Leviathan Whispers. We sang a farewell song to Pete under the bridge, before launching a beautiful withy boat, made by Martin West, to slowly burn down the Thames.

“ Now we say goodbye, you're on your final journey Sail into the night, the river gently holds you"

Other places I have sounded out in include beaches, inside and atop the Kennet Long Barrow and many blazing fire. Some time ago I lived in the Chiltern beech woods, and these provided a rich setting for music, performance and partying. These were again a special place for Jonathan and he recorded me playing in clearing unknowingly dueting with bats circling above. The remarkable processing Jonathan did to that recording become the basis for ‘Beech', a rich piece of dronecore that exists in many versions, including a contribution to the sonic herbal, ‘Infernal Proteus'.

Jonathan and I have also been working on occasional duos of baritone sax and processing. The hushed resonant hushed world these produced lead to the name and starting point of Leviathan Whispers.

My love of outdoor performance and celebration nurtured in the beech woods lead to my working with the pioneering arts company Welfare State International, where I met Dave Young. Dave made a giant horn for a performance of mine at Lanternhouse, WSI's base in Cumbria. This performance, called Soundings, was another starting point for Leviathan Whispers. The performance used drones, bells, folk song, and saxophone improvisations

“ A piece built from fragments of improvisation, scraps of song and scrapes of sound. A meditation inspired by landscape and seascape, by the landscape of sound, the body and the imagination, and by the sight and sound of the Glaxo factory's great chimneys steaming and humming to the night”

For many years I have got wandered around England with Adam Stout. The results of some of Adams diggings into land, myth and history can be found in the piece ‘Knapping'. Roger Bloomfield whose quote prefaces this website, has been another unerring and grizzled guide to the landscape around and inside us.

Tim Hill