sound pieces
During the residency, countless sound recordings were made on exploratory walks around the area, based on a posture of listening, observation and the search for the improbable. This search gave rise to a sound archive that describes an extremely personal relationship with the specificities of the territory and the Community. The recorded material includes natural environments, specific sound phenomena, traditional music, social events, conversations and much more.
Some of the sounds recorded provided the basis for a more subtle and specific, more “compositional” development – a kind of re-contextualisation of the places themselves, creating a broader imaginary from the lived experiences.
Sound Piece: Vascão
One of the central characteristics of the area around Mértola is its extreme weather conditions, especially the high temperatures and strong sun during the summer months. However, due to a wet spring in 2024, the Vascão River (one of the exploration sites) gained a lot of water during March and April. This means that it was an unusual and marvellous spring – in one of the driest and hottest areas of the country, water becomes an almost “sacred” element, imagining, for example, the fundamental value it had for the operation of the old mills by the river.
The route along the Vascão River (where the sounds were recorded) showed a mysterious and enigmatic side, referring to a “fantastic” world – a sensation that was intensified by the rain and the abundant nature. In addition, various stories and legends about mills and millers (see Public walk at Vascão River) influenced the construction of this sound piece, in which an intense relationship emerges between reality and imagination, strongly linked to the specificities of the place.
Sound Piece: Mina de São Domingos
The atmosphere in the village of Mina de São Domingos (next to an abandoned mine) is characterised by the heaviness of its history, on the one hand in relation to the gruelling life during the operation of the mine and the terrible working conditions, on the other in relation to the abandonment of the place after the mine closed in the 1960s. The recording that gave rise to this sound piece came about on a very windy day, documenting sounds produced by the movement of various metal sheets in the street, bringing this “spirit” of the Mine to life.
It was only later that I discovered another facet of this spirit, in contact with the inhabitants and above all with the choir group of Mina de São Domingos (one of many choir groups in the area that are committed to traditional singing, called Cante Alentejano). Here, when I attended the rehearsals and gatherings of the choir, what prevailed was an extraordinary sense of community, an energy of unity and belonging to the place, conveying a progressive and positive attitude.
The moving experiences led to a questioning of the relationship between these seemingly contradictory perspectives on the place, which in the end seem to be consequences of each other.
Sound Piece: Container at Guadiana River
On a walk along the River Guadiana near the town of Mértola, in an area of biodiversity, I discovered a huge metal container on top of a small hill. The object, with its strong and aggressive presence, had an impressive impact that contrasted greatly with the surrounding natural environment. What brought the container to this unusual place was probably one of the Guadiana’s historic floods – referring to a relationship between the flood as an aggressive and uncontrollable natural phenomenon, and the container as an echo/memory of it. Or, beyond that, to a curious relationship between the Natural and the Unnatural – an alien object being “exhibited”, almost as if it had a meaning in this place – How far is it a disturbance and how far is it a consequence? To what extent does it influence the environment and to what extent is it influenced by it?
Todos observam contristados a invasora torrente; admiram a instabilidade das couzas do mundo, e contemplavam attentos os phenomenos a que está sugeito tudo que existe debaixo da abobada eterna da Natureza!
Everyone watches the invading torrent with sadness; astounded by the instability of the things of the world, and attentively contemplated the phenomena to which everything is submitted that exists under the eternal vault of Nature!
(Excerpt from the local newspaper “O Bejense” from 1860, reporting on a flood of the Guadiana River, loose translation)
ACTIVITIES / PROJECTS
SAMUEL GAPP 