TPOE 299: Ordnance Survey

The Point of Everything

Neil O'Connor aka Ordnance Survey released his latest album Turas (Journey) on December 1 and talks through the tracks and creative process in this interview. He says Turas (Journey) is the most ambitious Ordnance Survey record to date. The field recordings used on Turas were captured with both analog and digital devices at passage and wedge tombs across Meath, West Cork, Wicklow, Connemara and Roscommon. To make use of the tombs' acoustics, elements like percussion were recorded in the tombs and through the process of re-amplification (playing pre-recorded material back in the tombs), this 3000-year-old reverberation became a major part of the sound world that the listener experience. Turas is an electronically mediated journey that allows these historical sites to become an important collaborative factor in the creative process. Guest collaborators include Roger Doyle (Piano), Gareth Quinn Redmond (Violin), and Billy Mag Fhloinn (Yaybahar). Also known as Somadrone, all of Neil's work can be found and purchased at https://scintillarecordings.bandcamp.com/music