'River Sounding', Bill Fontana, Somerset House

A new sound installation by artist Bill Fontana opened at Somerset House last week. It is called ‘River Sounding’ and is the culmination of Fontana painstakingly collecting sounds and images along the entire length of the river Thames. Somerset House’s long relationship with the river Thames makes this an ideal setting for the installation and it all takes place down in the lower levels below the courtyard, usually not open to the public.

Sounds are played via speakers and images are projected onto walls of adjoining rooms. It is a great chance to explore the underground lightwells of Somerset House. I later learned that these small rooms leading off from the lightwells (that currently house the visuals) were originally used to store coal. The lightwells were created to allow natural light to reach the rooms of the lower levels. The centrally located Dead House contains the most atmospheric part of the installation, quiet, darker with water dripping from overhead pipework.

The sounds range from bubbling, rushing water to bassy rumbles and low, hissing hums. Occasionally a bell chimes. A layer of extraneous surface noise sits on top of everything else. A free-flowing, aquatic soundtrack to accompany a visit to one of London's most beautiful buildings.

Florian Hecker sound installation, The Chisenhale Gallery

After leaving The Whitechapel Art Gallery I headed to The Chisenhale Gallery in Mile End to catch the current Florian Hecker sound installation. The installation features a number of small speakers hanging from the ceiling which play four electroacoustic pieces that focus on the relationship between sound, perception and locality.

I caught the end of the first piece which featured disembodied, distorted voices. The second piece started with crisp and slightly jarring beats. Single notes and amalgamated sounds soon took over and began to rotate around the three centrally positioned speakers, ricocheting around the large, minimalist gallery space. Mildly disoreinting, individual blocks of noise appeared to swell and escalate until they suddenly broke off from the main body of reverberating sound. In the third piece fragmented splinters of sound are fired against ceramic tiles on one of the gallery walls. The fourth piece was centred around a series of quickening sounds that were played from five small hanging speakers. Your location in the gallery determined the exact auditory experience received (this was applicable to all four pieces but especially so here). Ambitious, challenging sound art. Very good indeed.