A field in England / Prisoners was produced as a result of a site-specific commission in Leicester, supported by De Montfort University and IRCAM. In Situ  commissioned 3 artists to make temporary sonic works which animate historic spaces. I presented two interlinked pieces which explore the historic connection between Richard III and the City of Leicester in a former armoury tower Newarke Gateway (also known as The Magazine), located in the centre of the city.

A field in England is an electroacoustic work presented over a four channel speaker array arranged in the corners of a large stone-walled room. I started the compositional process with a series of field recordings from in and around the contested site(s) of the Battle of Bosworth where Richard III was killed in 1485. To these I have added a number of ambient and orchestral samples, as well as quotations from a vinyl recording of Shakespeare’s Richard III to produce a four movement, four channel installation that evokes political skullduggery, a battle for the soul of a nation and cries of English nationalism – themes which have a special resonance in 2018.

Prisoners is a hidden work placed inside a chimney breast and made with manipulated voices taken from a vinyl recording of the ‘Princes in the Tower’ from Shakespeare’s Richard III  – the young pretenders to the throne supposedly murdered at the orders of their scheming uncle Richard. Their haunted and haunting voices appear dislocated to the listener, unable to be physically located in space, like a ghostly visitation or seance.