Raveningham Sculpture Trail

‘Homecoming’ is an installation at Raveningham Sculpture Trail 2021. It is a collaboration between Norwich-based artist Laure Van Minden and trumpeter Chris Dowding.

The installation is based around phrases collected by Laure at the care home she works at. I chose some of the phrases, and made them into short poems. I then translated the letters into musical notes, using an alphabet system invented by the Devon-based composer Hugh Nankivell.

My aim for the project was to only use trumpet and Ableton Live, including laptop synth. I recorded the tracks over two weeks in February 2021, during lockdown.

I mixed the tracks myself, and then they were mastered by Norwich-based musician Paul Keeler. I made a cover from photographs I’ve taken of a different care home, near my flat.

‘Homecoming’ is at Raveningham Sculpture Trail from 31st July to 5th September 2021.

I have made some CDs of the project, featuring the seven pieces, which will be available in the gallery at Raveningham, alongside Laure’s artwork. The album is available to download digitally or as a CD on my Bandcamp page here are well:

https://chrisdowding.bandcamp.com/album/homecoming

I hope you enjoy listening to the tracks. ‘Homecoming’ is the second project I have done with Laure. From September 2020 to August 2021 we have worked on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ project, in which I made two tracks a month for the year, from the names of people who have died or been attacked in relation to the BLM movement.

Laure responded with artwork, and ‘Black Lives Matter’ was a subscription project on Bandcamp. We sent out two postcards each month with Laure’s artwork to subscribers, who also received the recorded tracks on Bandcamp, as well as exclusive access to alternate versions. If you are interested in the project it runs for two more months. The tracks and postcards are also available individually, and we are preparing for an album launch in November (TBA), as we will be making a double cassette of all 24 tracks, which will be available on Bandcamp. More info here:

https://chrisdowdinglaurevanminden.bandcamp.com/subscribe

I hope you enjoy any music and artwork you check out!

Chris Dowding, July 2021