New commission captures sound of carbon

A unique new musical commission which captures the sound of a coal mine premieres this autumn.

The piece – Ancestral Reverb – was commissioned by the groundbreaking community enterprise, Durham Miners’ Association (Redhills), and can be heard at an exclusive event at Durham Book Festival this October.

The new composition was created by the climate hope organisation, Threads in the Ground, who sent a team of musicians down an old drift coal mine at Beamish Colliery to digitally capture the ‘reverb’ of the mine.

Ross Forbes, Chief Executive at Durham Miner’s Hall in Redhills, said: “Redhills has been working closely with Threads in the Ground to develop education programmes and community responses to climate change. The Durham coalfield produced a lot of carbon in the past, and now we have to play our part in how we build a sustainable future.”

The piece features some of the oldest known recordings of colliery pit brass bands from 1903, combined with music played by the current Durham Miners’ Association band.

The musician, producer and Newcastle DJ, Bert Verso, weaved the brass band sounds into an electronic piece. Verso is known for his eclectic approach to hip hop and electronic music. Attendees of the project premiere, hosted at Gala Studio in Durham on Saturday 12 October, will be the first to hear the results.

Adam Cooper, director of Threads in the Ground, said: “Everywhere has a sound, the reverb is the signature sound of a space. You broadcast a loud speaker signal into the space and record what comes back, then subtract the original signal, capturing the reverb of the drift mine. Using this cavernous sound we then layered it into a new musical composition featuring brass bands and electronic music.”

Alison Paterson, manager of Blackhall Community Centre, the old Miners Welfare, are partners in the project. The centre plays a vital role supporting the communities in East Durham’s former coalfield regions.

Alison Paterson said: “Blackhall, like many other mining communities in the North East, still feels the effects of the brutal pit closures. But we are more than that, we’re a place where people come together and support each other. This project offers a new narrative that celebrates the incredible qualities of our mining legacy, which is hopeful and forward-looking. Former coalfield regions face deprivation and huge challenges, but it’s important to celebrate our incredible qualities too – the value of community, our resilience and creativity.”

Ancestral Reverb will continue as a cultural project, with plans to release a limited-edition vinyl record, using coal dust embedded in the vinyl, alongside a series of live performances next year.

Ancestral Reverb has been gathering retired miners from across the North East alongside their children and grandchildren, to capture oral histories and ideas around carbon heritage – what they are proud of, and what they want to see carried forward.

The poet Jacob Polley is crafting a spoken word piece drawing on the conversations which will sit within the final audio. The piece will honour the carbon heritage and ideas of the future shared by interviewees.

The photographer, Andy Martin, is producing a series of portraits of the interviewees, shot with Victorian Tin-Type technology, and printed using coal carbon.

A public exhibition of the Ancestral Reverb project will be held at Blackhall in November 2024 (dates tbc). The exhibition will show the final series of carbon portraits and final audio and spoken word pieces.

The premiere of the Ancestral Reverb soundscape at Durham Book Festival also features a discussion after the performance chaired by the director of Durham Energy Institute Simone Abram. It will be led by the education and development manager at Brass Bands England, Sara Baumaann, with the curator and producer, Justine Boussard, and Julia Rawlins, a senior expert at Local Governments for Sustainability Europe (ICLEI). They’ll explore how our carbon heritage can shape our response to the climate crisis, informed by conversations with retired miners and their families.

Adam said: “The composition is a bit like Moby meets Brassed Off.  We see ourselves as carbon reformers. The ambition is to honour the incredible carbon heritage of our region – looking beyond the strikes and Thatcher – to focus on the generations of campaigning and community power. It’s about carrying that legacy forward, and looking at what we do next around climate ideas.”

Adam added: “Three-quarters of the UK population have experienced climate distress. It took 300 years of graft to mine and burn 40 billion tonnes of coal. We stand at the beginning of 300 years of work to rebalance that inheritance with creative, hopeful climate work.”

Ancestral Reverb is on Saturday 12 October at Gala Studio as part of this year’s Durham Book Festival. Tickets £8/7, live stream tickets £5. Book online DurhamBookFestival.com or box office: 03000 266 600 or https://www.threadsintheground.com/projects/ancestral-reverb