Lee Patterson - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Ben Drew and myself recording railings in Dundee, photographed by Luke Fowler.Based in Prestwich (near Manchester) and existing on limited budgets, I spend time foraging for interesting sounds in my immediate surroundings, such as the sound of roadside railings played by passing cars or the secret languages of underwater insects and plants. I'm fascinated by the sound that exists as a kind of (exotic!?) substratum to the everyday world. Using contact mics or hydrophones, the more I investigate, the more the world opens up in front of my ears. Like many others before me, I've come to consider the world as an amazingly complex and varied generator of sound, one where hidden sonic treasures may exist within the most mundane or seemingly familiar of environments. Following on from Cages' 4'33", I've come to realise that both music and noise are entirely context specific and that music arises from a framework of specific listening. Alongside an array of invented sonic devices and processes, I use some of this recorded material in solo improvisation and installation, as well as with a host of experimental and improvising musicians from around the globe. During summer 2006, I produced the radio show, Audio Sketchbook, for Resonance FM, London and summer 2007 saw me work with and alongside Toshiya Tsunoda, producing outdoor sound installations for NVA's Half Life, Scotland (see www.arika.org.uk). Ongoing projects include an improvising trio with Rhodri Davies and David Toop, a duo with Graham Halliwell, a quartet with Angharad Davies, David Lacy and Paul Vogel as well as recent collaborations with Helena Gough, including a trio with Ben Drew.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 12/25/2006
Band Members: Current band line-up includes:- Sigara Dorsalis + Corixa and Micronecta genera of Lesser Water Boatmen; Hornwort; Hull Wind Turbines; Meg and Grahams' Fridge; Andrews' Liver Salts; Tate n' Lyles Golden Syrup; Indoor Sparklers; Hazelnuts on fire; Pumpkin Seeds; Wire Fence at Cley; Aeolian Carpark at Salford Quays; Humber Bridge; ErasmusBrug; Panasonic SL-SX315; E-Bow and The Springrods; Oral-B Cross Action electric toothbrushes; Bottles; Frying Eggs; Wind mashed umbrellas (or parts thereof); Vibro-tron.
Influences: Hugh Davies; Toshiya Tsunoda/WrK; Chris Watson; Jeph Jerman; Stilluppsteypa; Max Eastley; Joe Colley; Bernhard Gunter; M60/M62; starlings; ponds and canals; Akio Suzuki; Thomas Koner; springs; Maplins and cheap piezo transducers; Luigi Russolo/Italian Futurism; Insects; Joe Devlin; Morton Feldman; NON/Boyd Rice; AMM; John Cage; Morphogenesis; Steve Roden; Surf by Phillip Jeck; Matt Wand; charity shops; Richard Chartier; Onkyo; Alan Lamb; The Hafler Trio; Francisco Lopez; Davide Mosconi; Fluxus; John Barry; Adam and Jonathan Bohman; Stephen P. McGreevy; Nurse With Wound; Joseph Beuys; Scott Duffy; W.T.Statham; John Wall; Ponds and ditches; Alvin Lucier; Charlemagne Palestine; David Lynch; Prehistory/fossils; Metal fences and railings; songbirds; Chas Smith; The Baschet Brothers; Pan(a)Sonic; cooking and washing the pots; quotidian sound; other peoples litter; being skint; general mudgrubbing, scavenging and scrounging; urban bushcraft (for musical purposes); there are many others... -+-+-+-+-+- W.G.Sebald; W.S.Borroughs; A.Solzhenitsyn; Cabinet Magazine; J.G.ballard; P.Auster. +-+-+-+-+-+ Past and present collaborators:- David Audinet; Ruth Barberan; Deborah and Paul Bartholemew; Adam Bohman; Gene Coleman; Matt Davis; Angharad Davies; Rhodri Davies; Benedict Drew; Phil Durrant; Barry Esson; Luke Fowler; Jez riley French; Helena Gough; Mariella Greil; Dave Griffiths; Tasos Grivas; Ben Gwilliam; Graham Halliwell; Giusepe Ielasi; Tonny Kluften; David Lacy; Alastair Leslie; Helmut Lemke; Michael Maierhof; Kaffe Matthews; Wade Matthews; Sachiko M; Heiner Metzger; Werner Moebius; Alfredo Costa Monteiro; Rob Mullender; NVA; Owl Project; Evan Parker; Brian Percival; Keith Rowe; Christine Sehnaoui; Lars Scherzberg; Coryn Smethurst; Akio Suzuki; John Tilbury; David Toop; Rafael Toral; Toshiya Tsunoda; Birgit Uhler; Paul Vogel; Vu D'un Oeuf; Daniel Weaver; Alex Ward; Ami Yoshida; Ingar Zach.
Sounds Like: the inversion of noise...
Record Label: New Acoustical Pleasures
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

My favourite aural experiences of 2007...

Reasons to live and listen, in no particular order...- The waves breaking on Brighton's steeply banked, shingle beach during the early spring gales. 24th February 2007.- The unfolding of Helena Goughs...
Posted by Lee Patterson on Thu, 27 Dec 2007 11:50:00 PST

On listening to breakfast cooking...

When I made the first egg fry recording, it was after spending much time each morning listening to breakfast cooking and becoming fascinated with the sounds of eggs frying, I was curious as to how it ...
Posted by Lee Patterson on Sat, 17 Feb 2007 06:42:00 PST

Sounding aquatic organisms within common freshwater habitats

Water, as a medium for the propagation of sonic vibration, has some very specific qualities, not least of these being that sound travels four and a half times faster through water than air. In additio...
Posted by Lee Patterson on Sat, 17 Feb 2007 06:31:00 PST