From recording the breathing of Weddell seals in Antarctica to helping fine-tune the audio system in a modern electric vehicle, Brisbane-based sound artist Lawrence English finds inspiration in the sounds that are all around us.
At the global launch of the Smart #5 electric vehicle in Byron Bay recently, a tall stranger dressed in black stood out in the crowd.
Flanked by car designers and engineers, and before a throng of local and international journalists, the man in black looked out of place, not least because of the wide-brimmed hat, still in situ hours after the sun had gone down.
As a lifelong writer, music maker, and visual artist, Brisbane-based Lawrence English is accustomed to standing outside the mainstream.
From creating Fanzine’s in high school, to making and distributing mix-tapes of his favourite overseas bands using Brisbane’s last affordable tape duplication house, to founding his own record label and recording studio, Lawrence’s journey has been anything but ordinary.
Trying to pin down exactly what it is that Lawrence does isn’t easy, because he’s an artist, a composer, a curator and more.
The nearest dictionary definition seems to be “multidisciplinary artist” but Lawrence himself prefers the more homespun description that he’s a “fingers-in-pies person.”
One of these pies is ‘sound art,’ which is a collective definition for everything from field recordings to experimental instrumental works, to performance and installations. And it’s the reason Lawrence found himself working in the automotive space.
Premium audio systems in cars, especially luxury cars, are a big deal these days, with names like Bang & Olufsen, Bose and Harman Kardon routinely listed among the hi-tech features of the latest models.
Sennheiser is another renowned audio solutions company that’s also known for making some of the world’s best microphones, and it’s Lawrence’s familiarity with Sennheiser through his Brisbane record label Room40 that led to his involvement with the Smart #5.
Sennheiser’s audio system designers were keen to show off EV’s Sennheiser Signature Sound System – which boasts 20 speakers and a peak output exceeding 2000 Watts – in an unusual and geographically-appropriate manner, given the decision to host the car’s global reveal in Australia.
“The original conversation was about this idea of creating a sound work that would not just show off the physical potential of the sound system in the car, but also recognising the kind of environment in which the Smart #5 was being launched,” Lawrence said.
Among his talents, Lawrence is renowned as a master of ambient music, some of which features his field recordings, captured in locations as diverse as Antarctica, the Amazon, and of course Australia.
“So, we had this discussion and I made an argument as to what I thought would be a useful way for people to engage with the promise of the car,” he said.
“And in some respects, to get this idea of the outside inside – that you can be listening to a piece of music and have a kind of connection to that music, but also that it somehow captures those spaces or places that you might go with the car.
“The piece itself is called Eternal Vista, and it's this idea of basically tracing this connection from the shore, from the beaches, from the waves to the mountains. It's like a condensed sort of dawn till dusk of an environment with this music that sits with it. “
Among his talents, Lawrence is renowned as a master of ambient music, some of which features his field recordings, captured in locations as diverse as Antarctica, the Amazon, and of course Australia.
“So, we had this discussion and I made an argument as to what I thought would be a useful way for people to engage with the promise of the car,” he said.
“And in some respects, to get this idea of the outside inside – that you can be listening to a piece of music and have a kind of connection to that music, but also that it somehow captures those spaces or places that you might go with the car.
“The piece itself is called Eternal Vista, and it's this idea of basically tracing this connection from the shore, from the beaches, from the waves to the mountains. It's like a condensed sort of dawn till dusk of an environment with this music that sits with it. “
Lawrence worked closely with Sennheiser audio engineers to fine tune the soundscape, sending materials back and forwards to China where the car was being developed over a period of months.
“It's a very specific kind of array, the way the speakers are broken up in the car,” he said.
“So, you have this ability to make things very localised but also quite immersive.
“I guess you could say that it can really be almost cinematic.
“And I think that's, for me, the thing that was really appealing about the invitation to work on it was thinking how do you create that sense of expanse in something that is a very constrained environment like a car?”
The three-minute ambient soundscape was created using field recordings captured in South East Queensland and northern New South Wales, in locations as far north as Bribie Island, as far south as Byron Bay, and as far west as Lismore and the D’Aguilar Ranges.
It’s expected the recording will be included in the infotainment system of the Smart #5 when it goes on sale here and elsewhere next year, allowing people to experience the full sensory effect of the vehicle’s audio system.
Lawrence’s passion for field recording has taken him all over the world, including the Amazon, Antarctica, Japan, New Zealand and North America, but he has a particular connection to the sounds of Australia.
“What I love about Australia and recording in this country is that there is a type of excessiveness held within the land,” he said.
“There's something about being available to country here that is really powerful and I'm sure that deepness of feeling is perhaps how indigenous Australians might talk about dreaming, and the deep listening that often travels with that.
I think everywhere can be fascinating if you allow yourself to be fascinated by it.
“That's really the rule, I think. I've had the great fortune to go to Antarctica to record there.
“I've been to the Amazon, I've recorded in Japan, New Zealand and North America. I’ve literally been to every continent on the face of the planet to do this work, which is an incredible privilege.
“To go to these places and to be able to sit two-and-a-half-meters away from a Weddell seal that's sleeping and record its nostrils opening and closing is something I'll never forget, in the same way that I won't forget standing in the middle of the Amazon in a swamp being jumped on by what I learned the following day were poisonous frogs.”
He said the key to successful field recording was being quiet, patient and persistent, much like when fishing.
“I don't think we get that opportunity to be present very often,” Lawrence said.
“Field recording offers that, spending long periods in a location. I've had some extraordinary experiences, especially in the rainforest at night or in places where you are a long way from other people. It can be really powerful and sometimes a little bit unsettling.”
Attending a Lawrence English concert would be a different experience for most people, because of this focus is on active listening, where the instruments are the loudspeakers, and you may be asked to lie down on the floor to get the full experience.
“I think concerts are amazing because they offer you an opportunity to engage with your listening in two ways,” Lawrence said.
“There's obviously the kind of interior psychological listening. But what concerts also allow us to do, particularly concerts that work with my instrument which is the speakers, is have people listen not just with their ears, but also with their bodies.
“I use a lot of low energy. It's a kind of synesthetic nexus. It's where your listening becomes feeling.
“And I'm really interested in working at that point to create moments of tension and release in the way that the concert happens.
“I often invite people to lie on the ground and when they lie down, it's a very disarming thing.
“I like the idea that when people lie down, their body is in contact with the floor and the floor vibrates. So, you're getting this kind of vibration through your whole body.”
“The number of times at the end of the concept, someone comes up and says, ‘that sound, it was like when I was a kid and there was a storm’, or ‘I felt that I was on a boat and it was rocky in the ocean’.
“Everyone's got a different interpretation, but collectively, you're experiencing the same kinds of immaterial things in your body.
“The great thing about this life is that the pleasure is in the ideas. I'm not tethered to a formal material constraint.
“I'm not a painter, for instance. I’m just interested in ideas and how sense operates around those ideas.
“So, a lot of my work is around listening, I would say, but it's also about making opportunities for other people to come to those senses that are maybe not the kind of ocular-centric way of knowing the world.”
For more visit lawrenceenglish.com
It's an amazing experience because you have this incredibly, in some respects, individuated experience.
