KEIRA J. SIMMONS
Cities and Memory
I am a regular contributor to Cities and Memory, a global collaborative sound art project based in Oxford, UK, that reimagines field recordings and maps sound art works in collections (more information available on their website).
As a field recordist and soundscape composer, this project fits well within my academic and artistic interests. Through 2019 and 2020 I am composing a series of ambient, atmospheric sound pieces using the sounds provided by Cities and Memory. So far I have remixed field recordings from:
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Yellowstone National Park: citiesandmemory.com/yellowstone, this piece was included on the highlights album (citiesandmemory.bandcamp.com/album/yellowstone)
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Malaysia: citiesandmemory.com/three-words, this piece was included in the highlights album (citiesandmemory.bandcamp.com/album/three-words)
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Space: citiesandmemory.com/space
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New York citiesandmemory.com/2020/01/sirens-streets-new-york, this piece was included on the highlights album (citiesandmemory.bandcamp.com/album/sounds-from-new-york)
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and Germany audioboom.com/posts/7525727-divulsion.
COMA Benefit Gig
Ambient Field Recording/Looping Set, 2019
I developed this performance for the COMA (Creative Original Music Adelaide) Benefit Night Gig in December 2019. I was exploring memory and space, and the cyclic nature of our experience of both. Using field recordings from the empty performance space (The Wheatsheaf Hotel), I referenced particular soundmarks the COMA audience is familiar with (most notably the airplanes overhead interrupting every couple of minutes), to evoke a sense of the uncanny, drifting, and being enveloped in memory space. In the performance, just as I began to fade out the vocal loops at the end, a plane actually flew past, which was a pretty magical crystalizing moment.
Performed 18th December 2019 at the Wheatsheaf Hotel.
Sound Alliance Performance
Ambient Live Duet, 2019
This is the first of my slow moving ambient sets. I am grateful to have been part of the COMA Sound Alliance mentorship program, working with Adam Ritchie (r.domain) to develop this live duet. I used some field recordings from New York that hadn't heard the light of day yet, experimenting with new processes and instruments.
Performance 17 June 2019 at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, this recording is from a final rehearsal.
The Wanderer
Sound Poem, composer/performer, 2016
Collaboration with writer Kuvonn Richardson, this piece is composed of found sounds from my travels in Europe and a live reading of a segment from the poem, exploring the role of a traveller and the idea of feeling in between, a traveller, not belonging anywhere in particular.​ Inspired by Kaija Saairaho's 'Stilleben', this was my first entry into composing with field recordings.