Sonic Earth

Charles Richard is a Royal College of Art Alumni exploring multidisiplary theams. Founding Sonic Earth in 2017, the platform incorporates archival process, installation design and composition to reveal the potential of geological languages as vessels of sonic mystery. Working as an intermediary between the material and listener, Sonic Earth creates processed digital soundworlds composed directly through the internal resonances of extracted layers of the compressed landscape.

" Each rock is a testament of time that encapsulates universe and Earth. For the Sonic earth project I am seeking ways to synthesize the sounds of rocks. Working from this 21st century standpoint to rewire new sonic perspectives and experiences through the library of geological time. Over the last few years this work has discovered and evolved new ways of recording to capture a true audial of each resonant body. Recording rock tableau from both my own travels and also with the opportunity to record from the archive within the Natural History Museum, London, I have amassed a number of material recordings. My recording process starts with a prepared mineral stylus that scores the surface of the material. Recording this with a piezzo electric contact mic, this long recording serves as the generator. The next stage is to play this recording back into the material via a vibrational surface speaker. This means that the material is vibrating to its own resonance and the surface noise is heard less and what you hear is a cleaner amplified version of the rocks resonance. From this recording you discover the unique nature of each material. Though captivating as it is I am able to further explore the material digitally. Each track in this album is made using one rock. Playing with pitch, time stretching, counterpoint, eq's, filters etc I am able to bring all the different aspects of its language into a composition. It's always a work in progress but welcome to Sonic Earth. " Charles Richard, September 2021