John Rea

Amleddau/Frequencies

In our archives, we collect and keep our stories – from the personal to the National, whether on paper, Edison Cylinder, shellac, vinyl, tape, film, or hard drive, these are the sounds of our culture, and of belonging and identity.

By "remixing" the Radio Cymru archives, my intention is to create a new multi-media work to celebrate the Hundredth Anniversary of the first Welsh language broadcast, on February the 13th, 1923. The work will blend voices, old and new, with an original musical response: a combination of the historic, and the contemporary.

Amleddau/Frequencies will present the voices and recordings of the Radio Cymru archives in an immersive work, a blend of sound, music and film. In combining these with a contemporary musical response, the voices and sounds, and what they represent will be returned into our communal memory. A mix of original recordings, and iconic symbolic events will reflect the originality of our culture, and how we perceive ourselves in this last hundred years. 

I will re-visit techniques that were used in the creation of the work Atgyfodi, broadcast on Radio Cymru by Huw Stephens in 2019,inspired by research in the sound archives of St Fagans: Museum of History. 

Another significant influence on this work is the City Symphony film genre of the 1920’s, such as the famous Berlin, Symphony of a City by Walter Ruttmann, and collaborator, the composer Edmund Meisel. The genre is unique in that it combines music and abstract, symbolic film imagery to convey the essence of the city, and a strong sense of place. As Cardiff is so important in the history of Welsh broadcasting, I intend to borrow this approach, and in utilising the modern technology of the atrium in the BBC Central Square building, create a modern equivalent. 

Amleddau/Frequencies will be a celebration of our broadcasting tradition, and its pioneers: it will be a tapestry of sounds and stories, spoken by iconic, and ‘real’ people; with the sounds of these lives influencing the musical narrative responses. At the heart of the idea will be the archives themselves, and the rhythms of dialect, being heard once again, returning into collective memory.

Amleddau/Frequencies - A Short Film - YouTube

John Meirion Rea website

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| təʊl | video / description

Bio:

John Rea is a composer and sound artist based in Cardiff. His work is deeply rooted in Welsh culture and landscape, and in cross-cultural connections and collaborations. His interest is in responding to place, community, and in exploring new interdisciplinary approaches.

Since leaving Cardiff University with an M.Mus. in composition, under the guidance of Alun Hoddinott CBE, and an early stint as a session musician & arranger for Dave Stewart’s Anxious Records in London, John has subsequently worked as a freelance composer for concert platform, theatre, and film, whilst also pursuing his own interests in sound installation, and sound-art.