Composer Annea Lockwood Burns Pianos, Records Earthquakes at 86
Annea Lockwood, an 86-year-old composer from New Zealand, has built her career making music from unusual sounds like burning pianos, earthquake recordings, and Belfast's peace walls. She recently displayed a broken piano at Glasgow's Counterflows festival as part of her experimental art.
Annea Lockwood has spent over 50 years turning the world into her recording studio. The New Zealand composer burns pianos to capture their crackling sounds, records earthquake vibrations, and samples audio from Belfast's peace walls.
At 86, Lockwood continues her mission to find music in everyday sounds. She recently showed a broken upright piano at Glasgow's Counterflows festival, tilted like a sinking ship and half-buried in dirt.
Lockwood's unusual methods include holding séances during her performances. After one piano-burning event, she and friends conducted a séance to contact Beethoven and ask what he thought of their experimental music.
Field recording involves capturing sounds from real environments rather than studios. Lockwood pioneered this technique decades before it became popular in electronic music. She documents everything from river sounds to urban noise.
Her work preserves sounds that might disappear as cities change and nature shifts. Each recording becomes a time capsule of a specific place and moment.
Lockwood's work shows how music exists all around us in everyday sounds most people ignore. Her decades of field recording help preserve disappearing sounds and challenge what we think music can be.
More experimental music festivals will likely feature Lockwood's work as interest in field recording grows.
Was this article helpful?
0 people found this helpful