More Than Concrete

An exploration of Croydon’s brutalist architecture, bringing the concrete monolithic forms to the forefront and elevating their existence through sound and film into a new temporal dimension. Using contact mic recordings taken from Croydon’s concrete, these became a basis for the soundscape composition. From the flyover and underpasses to the many car parks and stoic buildings. Saxophone subtones and other extended techniques were blended to elevate the concrete field recordings further, bringing a soul to the seemingly silent giants. The project was selected to be part of the Open Source Collaborations exhibit for The Albany and Foreign Body Productions. This gave me the opportunity to work closely with film artists Daniel Adhami and Mathilda Mancey Jones to bring about the visual stimulus to further enhance the narrative of the hidden concrete world. In these images, we can witness the thriving humanity around these provoking structures, whilst also challenging the viewer to see a more abstract and sometimes beautifully ethereal conception of Croydon’s concrete.