A place, and time for everything. / 26th October 2020
A quarterly show by musician and artist Stuart Bowditch documenting location responsive projects, field recordings, sound installations, ambient and experimental music. || http://www.stuartbowditch.co.uk/ || @stuartbowditch || Broadcast on 26th October 2020 at CAMP || http://listen.camp
Stuart Bowditch - A place, and time for everything
Episode 2 - The Holy Land
Please see in comments below for a show description from Stuart.
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Stuart Bowditch - A place, and time for everything
Episode 2 - The Holy Land
My travelling companion and I have taken to booking a few weeks away in October both as a means of extending the summer and a chance to discover somewhere new. We’ve been keen to travel to Palestine and Israel to see for our own eyes what is happening there, as well as to visit some of the holy sites associated with a variety of religions, and this is where we travelled to in 2019. Being interested in the sonic aspect of places and people’s activities, I found time to record the sound of many of these locations, as well as the places that we stayed and travelled through.
This broadcast is a collage of recordings made inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dormition Abbey, Tomb of the Virgin Mary, St. Anne’s Church, Church of Condemnation, The Western Wall and St, James’ Cathedral Church, all in Jerusalem; The Milk Grotto and Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem; St. Joseph’s Church and The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, as well as streetscapes from each of those cities.
I’m not a religious person by any means but I felt strong emotions in these buildings, a palpable sense of their power and importance both historically and today. Following pilgrims throughout the cities we were able to witness some incredible services, rituals and ceremonies of people from the Catholic, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Armemian Apostolic and Islamic faiths.
We also sought out conversations and experiences with Palestinians and Israelis, visited a settlement in Hebron and Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem to better understand both viewpoints of current and historical situations, although recordings of these do not feature here.
Listening to the recordings a year later brought back a lot of those memories and emotions and I hope that you too can get a sense of the religious and historical significance of this area, as well as recognising that they are real and everyday places that continue to be home to around one million people today.