‘‘Once the Coronavirus pandemic changed the plans for Yarmonics making it a online based festival I knew I needed to think again about the work I was going to produce. 

In late June when the lockdown restrictions were lifting I drove the short distance from my home in Norfolk to Great Yarmouth. I've been here a number of times since I moved to Norfolk 5 years ago but wanted to look at the town afresh.  My idea was to visit the town again and document the town in some way with field recordings and photography.

My first trip was in early July and after getting in the wrong lane at traffic lights I found myself driving towards the port area south of the main area of the town where the rivers curves and meets the sea. This area of light industrial units provided a lot of material and I felt at once that this should be the area to focus on.  I was drawn to the Nelson's Monument aka Britannia Monument built in the early 19th century and started to photograph this from different angles and locations, the monument often appearing above factory units from some distance away. I made three further trips to this area through July and August, covering all the port area and also south of the river right up to where the mouth meets the see. I recorded sound in about 60 different locations and took close to 300 hundred photographs. I walked the area on foot and by car and got to know the area fairly well.

The finished piece was created at home in my studio, taking the field recordings, manipulating them into a musical soundscape and selecting images both of which I felt captured the mood of the area. I was assisted by David Barrington who produced the final film but who did not visit Great Yarmouth.’’

Neil Stringfellow has been recording as Audio Obscura since 2014. He has made a number of albums and contributed field recordings for film. Neil works in the fields of electronic, ambient and experimental music which oftern incorporates field recordings.Neil moved with his young family to Norfolk in 2015 and spent 3 years recording at rural Norfolk church locations which were developed into soundscapes and released as Gathering Silence an album on Naviar Records in 2019.  He has released a number of other works including an imagined soundtrack for George Orwells Nineteen Eighty Four, for the Bibliotapes label. In 2020 Neil launched the 20x20 Project which is releasing an album every 20 days by 20 different artists, who have all been given the same brief; to provide 20 tracks, each track being exactly 20 seconds long. 

soundcloud.com/audio-obscura-music

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