Sounds of the Subaquatic

2023 – ongoing

Royal Parks, London

Zoom H6 recorders, Zoom shotgun and X-Y capsule, MixPre-3 II Audio Recorder, H2A Hydrophone by Aquarian, JRF Hydrophones, Rode NT4 stereo mic and Rode NT5 matched pair.

Commissioned by The Royal Parks as part of the Help Nature Thrive project.

Assistant field recordists: Dani Osoba and Geoffrey Papin

Guest artists: Holly McCarthur, Rebecca Huxley, Sam Slattery, and Vicki Salmi.

Students from Guildhall School of Music and Drama: Archie Awford, Chloe Mason, Eleanor Fineston-Roberts, Frankie Hewett, Henry McLean, Isabel Woodings, James Landsdowne, Kevin Rodgers, Lorelei Hacking, Morgan Watson, Phil Roscoe, Ruaridh Summers, Seamus Heath, Tilley Gartan and Tommy Abrey.

Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is wearing headphones and smiling at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood and Sam Slattery (guest artist) are looking at a stream in Bushy Park and discussing how to record it.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is throwing a hydrophone into a river in Bushy Park. Sam Slattery (guest artist) and Henry McLean (student from Guildhall School of Music and Drama) are in the background.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Rebecca Huxley (guest artist) and Dani Osoba (assistant field recordist) are sat on a river bank in Hyde Park, while they record sounds of the Dell Stream with hydrophones.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Dani Osoba (assistant field recordist), Kevin Rodgers (Guildhall School of Music and Drama student) and Connor Butler (from The Royal Parks) stand by Dell Stream in Hyde Park, smiling at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. A long piece of birch is placed on a wooden bench that is next to the pond in The LookOut Garden at Hyde Park. It looks a bit like a fishing rod, and a hydrophone is attached to the end dangling into the water. There are a pair of headphones resting on hte bench.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Ruaridh Summers (Guildhall School of Music and Drama student) is crouched by the bank of Pen Ponds in Bushy Park. He is holding a Zoom recorder, recording geese.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. A photo of Rangers Lodge Pond in Hyde Park. It is covered in algae bloom. A hydrophone is dangling into the water, from a long birch branch. It looks a bit like fishing.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Kevin Rodgers (student from Guildhall School of Music and Drama) and Emily Peasgood are holding Zoom H6 recorders towards the start of a babbling brook.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Eleanor Fineston-Roberts (student at Guildhall School of Music and Drama) sits on the bank of St James's Lake in St James's Park. She is wearing headphones and smiling as she listens to the sounds she has recorded.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is sat on the bank of Queen Marys Garden Pond in The Regents Park. Guildhall School of Music and Drama student James Landsdown is in the background, pointing a shotgun microphone towards the pond.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is looking at the camera. She is holding a long birch branch with a hydrophone attached, and wearing headphones.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Geoffrey Papin (assistant field recordist) is sat on the banks of Queen Mary's Garden Pond in The Regents Park. He is untangling some hydrophone cables.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Geoffrey Papin (assistant field recordist) is sat on the banks of Queen Mary's Garden Pond in The Regents Park. He is looking at Emily and motioning for her to "ssh" while he records some waterfowl in the stream.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guildhall School of Music and Drama student James Landsdowne is stood with assistant field recordist Geoffrey Papin, facing the camera with a flower bed in Queen Mary's Garden Pond at The Regent's Park in the background. They are holding long birch poles with hydrophones wrapped around them.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is sat on some grass in The Regents Park. She is pulling a silly face and motioning to her ear to encourage the photographer to listen.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guildhall School of Music and Drama students Seamus Heath and Lorelei Hacking are sat on the banks of a small wetland pond in The Regent's Park. They have hydrophones placed in the water, and are listening to the sounds they record.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guildhall School of Music and Drama students Phil Roscoe and Frankie Hewett stand on a wooden platform on the bank of The Serpentine in Hyde Park. They are holding recording equipment and smiling at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Rebecca Huxley (guest artist), Dani Osoba (assistant field recordist) and Alex Rainford-Roberts (The Royal Parks) are sat in a golf buggy, waiting to be transported to the next recording site in Hyde Park. A wooden A-frame is positioned in front of them on the ground. It has a "Sounds of the Subaquatic" poster stuck to it.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood, Vicki Salmi (guest artist) and Dani Osoba (assistant field recordist) are sat in a pedalo in The Serpentine at Hyde Park. They are laughing and waving at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Seamus Heath (Guildhall School of Music and Drama student) is standing next to a wetland pond in The Regent's Park. He is holding recording equipment and smiling at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily is sat on a wooden platform on The Long Water in Kensington Gardens. Only her legs can be scene and a boom pole with a hydrophone attached to the end. There are reeds in front of her and the lake in the distance.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is holding a boom pole with a hydrophone attached and wearing headphones. She is sat next to a pond in The Italian Gardens at Kensington Gardens.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Image by Emily Peasgood.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Two long pieces of birch are placed on a wooden bench that is next to the pond in The LookOut Garden at Hyde Park. It looks a bit like fishing rods, and a hydrophone is attached to the end dangling into the water. There are two pairs of headphones resting on the bench.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guildhall School of Music and Drama student Lorelei Hacking, and assistant field recordist Dani Osoba are sat on grass near a wetland pond in The Regent's Park. There is recording equipment in front of them and they are smiling at the camera with both thumbs up.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guildhall School of Music and Drama students Tilley Gartan and Isabel Woodings are standing on a wooden platform on The Long Water in Kensington Gardens. They each hold a long birch branch with a hydrophone wrapped around it and are smiling at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guildhall School of Music and Drama students Tilley Gartan and Isabel Woodings are sat next to a pond at The Italian Gardens in Kensington Gardens. There is a polystyrene field recording tank on the ground, and they are recording a sample they are extracted from the pond. On the floor there is a sample jar which was used to take a sample from the pond, and lots of laminated 'Species Cards' which list species present and how to best record them.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Guest artist Rebecca Huxley stands outside The Rangers Lodge in Hyde Park. She is wearing an interesting headpiece with a microphone each side of her head. It looks a bit like a solar system but it enables her to listen to sound as though her head was a stereo microphone. She is smiling.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Charlotte Cass (The Royal Parks) and Guildhall School of Music and Drama students Archie Awford and Chloe Mason are standing in a circle. Charlotte Cass holds a frog, and Chloe is trying to record its croak with a very small handheld microphone. It is a funny photograph and they are all laughing.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. A wooden A-frame stands on the ground in The Italian Gardens at Kensington Gardens. It has a poster attached stating: "Sounds of the Subaquatic".
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood stands next to the pond at The LookOut Garden in Hyde Park. She is wearing a large pair of headphones and staring thoughtfully at the camera.
Sounds of the Subaquatic in The Royal Parks, London, led by sound artist Emily Peasgood, 2023. Emily Peasgood is sat on a pedalo in The Serpentine at Hyde Park. She is hold a shotgun microphone, and her other hand is cupping her ear as if to say: "Listen". She has very large glasses that make her look like a bug, and is smiling broadly.


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