Colebrook Chronicles

I completed a very successful residential sound project at Colebrook Day Centre (Redhill) for people with learning disabilities in 2008. In this I recorded participants and environmental sound, which I then edited, along with archive sounds, to create a CD of compositions, providing a creative portrait of the centre.

Have a listen to the Building Soundscape ‘After Home Time’:

After Home Time

The ChronicCall (part of Colebrook Chronicles, from a day-centre in Redhill Surrey) project was completed in 2008 and resulted in an 8 track CD which was warmly welcomed and enjoyed as a piece of entertainment and archive material. Equally important is that it is used as a valuable piece of follow up work for users of the day-centre who have learning and other disabilities. The project was funded by The Arts Council through SIAC.

The following description of the compositions was written for users of the day-centre, including the staff and people with learning disabilities.

Eugene McCloskey has made a CD of Colebrook Day-Centre.

He recorded noises like a squeaking door, the sound of footsteps, people speaking, singing, playing music as well as sounds from the car park and Garden Centre.

He also used sounds from videotapes of things that have happened in the past from the Colebrook Archive, things like Sports Days and Drama Groups.

Eugene took all these recordings home and edited them using a computer. What that means is that he could start and stop the recording when he wanted and then play it at the same time as another recording. Sometimes he would use just a very small piece of sound so it is hard to tell what was making the noise in the first place, a bit like only hearing part of a word that someone says; you cannot quite understand what they are trying to say but you do get a feeling of what they are talking about.

These bits of sound were carefully arranged to make this CD.

All of the sounds on this CD are noises from Colebrook Day-Centre, some from years ago, some from not so long ago.

If you know the Colebrook Day-Centre you might recognise some names or people, or sounds of the building that you know.

The track ‘After Home Time’ (see and hear below) refers to the empty building of the day-centre. Particularly important sounds include the automatic front door, telephone, a number of squeaky doors, the hand towel holder and the cleaner who makes a guest appearance.

Other tracks on the CD were

NAMES ABOARD: involving any mention of anyone I could find.

AT THE POND: over dramatised pond activity involving newts and lots of water sound.

DRAMA & DRUM: a combination of archive video sound of animal impersonations with a newly recorded drumming group made an exciting jungle sound.

HAVING A LAUGH: celebrating the laughter so often present at the centre.

HOT STUFF: the most manipulated track involving sampled beats and expressive spoken quotes.

HOLIDAY: spoken reminisces of holiday trips with Karaoke backing and sounds of travel.

DREAM LAND: was composed from dreamy archive video sound and a newly recorded percussion group along with location birdsong.