Inside Journeys explores the physical and historical spaces occupied by The Rose Hill, as an arts space, a pub, and a building. It is a place people have met, lived and worked, and they plotted a course through all of this, using the sounds and stories they discovered in it to create a new audio visual performance and an album . Andrew Greaves and Dan Powell have released 'Inside Journeys, which was made during their residency at the Rose Hill in 2022 and is inspired by The Rose Hill's multifaceted history.
The audio and ideas for Inside Journeys were sourced by making instrumental recordings in the space to use as textures, recordings of soundings of objects they found, and field recordings made over the course of their residency. Dan recorded chairs creaking, barrels rolling, glasses being rubbed and and scratched, and all of these are in the mix. Andrew took pictures and filmed the space and the objects scattered throughout.
They spoke to Dave and Gill Barwood, who visited the pub in the late 1980’s, as well as Jim Purbrick who shared a tale of visiting more recently as part of an immersive art performance, and collected memories of the Rose Hill from regulars and local residents. Andrew worked with the Brighton Past group who shared their stories of the pub over the years.
Dan and Andrew worked on a text score and used extensive rehearsals and discussion to refine the sound of the piece, which was added to by local historian Dr Geoffrey Mead who they consulted with on the piece, and who gave a series of vignettes on the history of the area around the Rose Hill as part of the performance.
Andrew created themes and rhythmic motifs based on his exploration of popular songs of the kind that might have been performed in the Rose Hill from the 1930s onwards. His sound palette is suggestive of the audio technology of the time. Dan used software to manipulate the audio sources recorded in-situ, as well as working with amplified objects sourced from the Rose Hill.
Dan Powell is a sound artist who uses field recordings, handmade and proprietary electronics and tuned percussion. His main interest is exploring places which have a particular personal resonance. He released a couple of albums of sound art on Crónica . He has been active in electro-acoustic improvisation in London and Brighton, playing with Gus Garside in The Static Memories, and Chris Parfitt in Nil. Currently he performs as part of Muster with James O’Sullivan. Website
Andrew Greaves is an active member of both the Spirit of Gravity and the Safehouse improvisation collectives. Andrew’s pieces combine melodic Casio organ improvisations within layered settings. Employing minimalist repetition and collages of manipulated found sounds. Andrew’s works explore memory and recollection and the process of sub conscience influences arising within spontaneous improvisation. Andrew believes each of us hold an incalculable library of memories, forming a unique fingerprint of influences and perspectives. His work seeks to access this resource via improvisation to create instant compositions.His work has been used in film, both in the form of live soundtrack performances and produced soundtrack scores.