Stuart Bowditch Podcasts

My travelling companion and I have taken to booking a few weeks away in October both as a means of extending the summer and a chance to discover somewhere new. We’ve been keen to travel to Palestine and Israel to see for our own eyes what is happening there, as well as to visit some of the holy sites associated with a variety of religions, and this is where we travelled to in 2019. Being intereste...

I'm chuffed to have contributed a field recording to this exhibition of large format photographs taken by the excellent Mark Edwards. Countless Edens is on until 15th October at Primeyarc in Great Yarmouth and expertly curated by originalprojects; so head on over there if you get the chance. 'Countless Edens is a body of photographic work by Mark Edwards, made over the course of three years, in th...

In August 2014 I went for a walk with artist Cathie Cox to explore the riverside environs of West Thurrock. We started at St. Clement's Church (which featured in the film Two Weddings and a Funeral) and its rather incongruous neighbour the huge Proctor and Gamble factory, and then proceeded along the sea wall amongst all of the industrial and liminal riverside landscapes, admiring the world renown...

The day before my birthday in 2010 I took the train and tube to Brixton, arriving in Electric Avenue, probably for a gig or to go dancing. Please excuse the slight wind noise on the mic.

A recording made on a family holiday on 11th May 2008 to Barcelona, I walked in on a service (unknown) at the Basilica Santa Maria Del Mar,

A recording from the archive, made on Platform 3B at Peterborough Station on 24th July 2008. I have no recollection of where I was going or what I was doing on that journey but I was waiting for a connecting train to somewhere.

On the fifth day of our walk along the Camino de Santiago I went to record the bells of Igrexa De San Tirso in the small town of Palas de Rei. The plan was to record from around 7:55 until 8:05 with the church bells in the middle of the recording, a strategy I have employed for many years now. Unfortunately, although I could see the bells, they didn't ring. But you can enjoy the songs and calls of...

My travelling companion and I were in Den Bosch, Netherlands, for the weekend and found St. John's Cathedral whilst wandering around. There was a service in proceedings for the celebration of Pentecost. You can hear the opening and closing of the gates on the stalls as people come to sit down, and also in the middle section of music as people get up to queue for their communion wafers. Photo by Ru...

My travelling companion and I went to one of my favourite places, Shingle Street in Suffolk, for a New Years Day walk in 2018. On the way back we made a short detour to Bawdsey and waited for the ferry to return across the River Deben. There was a queue of excited passengers waiting to be picked up and some children playing the shingle beach.

I was early for a job in Central London so was waiting on the corner of Mortimer Street and Berners Street to kill some time, or rather, make a field recording. The location of the recording is in the street, not from the vantage point of the photograph.

A recording made at Beiyuanmen Night Market, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China on Thursday 31st September 2018.

At the end of my Camino journey, taking 8 days from to reach Santiago de Compostela from Sarria, I was lucky enough to find Procession of Holy Encounter in the centre of the city and followed the procession through the narrow streets for 20 minutes to the central Praza da Quintana De Vivos next to the Cathedral. I positioned myself in the middle of all of the people taking part and in front of, bu...

Recorded in a small woodland called The Bottoms, near to St. Andrew's Church in Wormingford in north Essex. I initially went to record inside the Church but it was closed (even though the opening hours online stated otherwise) so went to sit in the woods for a while. It was quite a bit milder than recent temperatures, that made for a pleasant experience listening to the birds although being in a q...

Part of a series of recordings being made for the project Fonema in Barreiro, Portugal. My two week residency is part of Territory, a programme commissioned by Sluice magazine and PADA Studios, which will exhibit as part of the Lisbon Art Weekend 10-13th November 2022. I sat drinking a beer in the afternoon outside of the Cervejaria Pireza listening to the clientele converse about things I had no...

Part of a series of recordings being made for the project Fonema in Barreiro, Portugal. My two week residency is part of Territory, a programme commissioned by Sluice magazine and PADA Studios, which will exhibit as part of the Lisbon Art Weekend 10-13th November 2022. I spent a while recording next to the River Tagus on a small spit known as Alburrica. The recording highlights the effect of the f...

A recording made next to the River Stour at Foxearth Meadows, Essex, on 30th April 2022 in the late afternoon. Competing with the rush hour traffic are the following birds, of which there are many during peak springtime activity. Chiffchaff, Wren, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Long-Tailed Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, Oystercatcher (this far inland!), Bullfunch, Moorhen, Sparrow, Blue Tit, Mallard, G...

I went to the allotments to do a bit of digging, weeding and watering. Being next to Sudbury Meadows, and alongside the old railway embankment there had been lots of birds recently so I decided to make a recording and see what birds I could identify (with the excellent Merlin iPhone app). I couldn't identify them all but my knowledge of birds songs and calls is getting better. You might do better...

It's been a while since we made any site visits as part of our Fabric Silk Road project but today we had an invite to record the machines, environs and personnel at Vanners Silk in Sudbury. Ciaran Roche at Vanners, one of the five working silk weaving companies found in Sudbury, saw our activities online and said that we'd be more than welcome to come and have a chat about our project and see behi...

It's been a while since we made any site visits as part of our Fabric Silk Road project but today we had an invite to record the machines, environs and personnel at Vanners Silk in Sudbury. Ciaran Roche at Vanners, one of the five working silk weaving companies found in Sudbury, saw our activities online and said that we'd be more than welcome to come and have a chat about our project and see behi...

It's been a while since we made any site visits as part of our Fabric Silk Road project but today we had an invite to record the machines, environs and personnel at Vanners Silk in Sudbury. Ciaran Roche at Vanners, one of the five working silk weaving companies found in Sudbury, saw our activities online and said that we'd be more than welcome to come and have a chat about our project and see behi...

A recording made at Yantai East Port Fish Market, Yantai, Shandong Province, China on Thursday 27th September 2018. Presented as an installation at Between Us: Biennial Conversations and Exchanges - An ongoing dialogue between artists from China and Britain. A Yantai Art Museum, China initiative with originalprojects; Great Yarmouth and University of Suffolk, Ipswich, UK.

Field Recording made at Joyces Marsh, Goldhanger, 4th June 2020 as part of my project Resounding, following in the footsteps of JA Baker, author of The Peregrine. Birds heard in this recording include a Skylark, Black Headed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Green Sandpiper and a Linnet. www.stuartbowditch.co.uk/resounding-344243

Field Recording made at Brick House. Mundon, 28th May 2020 as part of my project Resounding, following in the footsteps of JA Baker, author of The Peregrine. www.stuartbowditch.co.uk/resounding-344243

Field Recording made at Stone Point, Mundon 28th May 2020 as part of my project Resounding, following in the footsteps of JA Baker, author of The Peregrine. www.stuartbowditch.co.uk/resounding-344243

During week 2 of the UK Covid19 Lockdown a nationwide event to show our appreciation of the efforts of the NHS staff in the front line of the battle against the virus. At 8pm on 26th March 2020 those wishing to take part we re to stand outside their front doors and applaud. Here is a recording from outside our house on Ballingdon Steet, Sudbury, Suffolk with 8pm being at the 5 minute mark.