Sample #4

You just heard part of a piece called ‘Birdwoman’, by Poppy Ackroyd. Poppy Ackroyd is a musician who uses pianos and violins in unusual ways to create lots of unexpected sounds.

This music mixes together recordings of different musical instruments with the sound of clicking pebbles and washing water on Brighton beach.

When you listened, did you hear how some sounds were short and spiky, whilst others were long and smooth? Perhaps you noticed how the longer sounds gradually got louder and softer, like rolling waves, and the spiky sounds were like little sparkles of light reflecting off the water. What did the sounds make you imagine?

This minute had a lot of reverb, which is a kind of echoing effect that can be used in sound recordings. Did you hear how the sounds bounced around gently from one side to the other? How did the music in this minute make you feel?