Joseph Young - Sonic Hauntings in a Big House, Joseph Young
‘Sonic Hauntings in a Big House’ emerged out of a practice-based PhD research project, Killruddery: Listening to the Archive (2019-23). In his debut album for Farpoint Recordings, sound artist Joseph Young summons the rich and complex histories of the Big House in Ireland through field recordings, voice(s) and retro-futuristic sonic layering. Through exploring the extensive family archive held at Bray’s Killruddery House & Gardens, Young devised both a geolocated soundscape in Killruddery’s grounds and this accompanying record, which further proposes a spectral glimpse of a lost past.
The vinyl LP version of ‘Sonic Hauntings in a Big House’ comes with full a colour sleeve and printed inner sleeve bearing vivid imagery drawn from the ‘Big House’ and its 17th century ornamental gardens. Building upon the albums rich hauntalogical theme, there is also a four page pamphlet featuring further imagery alongside a specially commissioned text from celebrated sound art writer, Salomé Voegelin. The vinyl LP is published in a first edition of 250 copies.
Vinyl LP and Digital Album packages come with the bonus track ‘A nightingale Sings’
Packages also include unlimited streaming of ‘Sonic Hauntings in a Big House’ via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Track List
SIDE 1 – INSIDE
1. Rewind
An antique tape recorder is discovered
2. The Big House is Always There
Between Ireland and Britain
3. The Poetics of Space
Inside the Big House
4. Listening to the Archive
Maps, letters, photographs
5. Winds of Change
Outside a storm is brewing
6. Is there a Ghost in the house?
A spectral encounter
7. Call of the Wild
An unexpected sound in the hall
SIDE 2 – OUTSIDE
8. Safe Beneath His Cross
For the monks of Kilrotheric
9. Field of sheep
A pastoral idyll
10. The Potato
An elegy
11. Autumn Leaves
In the Rock Wood
12. Monument
Age of Empire
13. Time Slips
A water-powered clock