Soundscapes, sonifications and compositions by staff & students at UWE and CCRI

• Clevedon Pier
• Industrialisation
• Bird Migration
• Sedimental
• Portishead Beach
• The Breath of the Moon
• Severn Beach
• Suspension Bridge
• Severn Bore
• Tides at Burnham-on-Sea
• Tides and Eels
• The Severn Bores in 2010
• Dock Traffic
• A Day in the Docks
• Wind under Severn Bridge

Sedimental by Hugo Bishop, Louis Catlett, Adam Khadaroo and Piran Watson, 2010

Arrangement of field recordings and foley sounds, 3:58 mins

The piece documents fine sediment movements in one of the small riverlets feeding into the Severn estuary. The journey begins above water and then descends to the level of the moving sediment. Since the location sound overlaid the actual sediment sounds, additional foley sounds were recorded in a tank and added to the piece later on. The sediment originates from small rivers, like the river Parrett. It is a mixture of clay minerals, sands and polysaccharides (mucus produced by mud-dwelling microorganisms). The sands and the polysaccharides render the mud more cohesive and increase its ability to bind pollutants (heavy metals, pesticides, etc) present in the water. During spring tides, the accelerated flow of water in the estuary means that a larger amount of silt is re-suspended and moved about. Then about 30 million tonnes of fine sediment are in suspension.