Something Old for Something New ...

I LOVE going to Flea Markets, Antique Fayres, Car Boot Sales. I think it's because they say so much about an era, our artefacts out live us and tell another generation something of how we lived/live.

So it made perfect sense to toddle off to Carmarthenshire County Show Ground for an ENORMOUS Flea Market full of cast off treasures and trinkets to inspire me from the old to fuse with my new production ...

I cast Pergrin's Fishing net and trawled the flea market for ideas ...

And I decided this ...

That I want to include an old phonograph record player into the installation .. you know the type, with a sliver arm that comes across and a needle that scratches the sound from the grooves of vinyl

Her Own Voice

There are a fair few reasons why   including a phonograph makes sense to me:

It is part of the history of music

It is part of the history of popular culture

It is part of our social history and concept of mass listening

It is a beautiful thing

It will represent my passion for treasure hunting in the past

It will represent every singer/songwriter of my age who grew up wanting to release a 'record' because this is what we meant, black plastic that ages and jumps ... but we have been short changed into perfect CD's instead!! lol!

And in this vein, I think ... why not cut some aspect of the background sound recording for Fusion Inspire to vinyl and use the phonograph to play it live ....

So what part of the sound ... mmm ... (long pause to think this through)                                       

 I know!!!!

THE WELSH TRANSLATION!!

I am embarrassed to say that I don't speak Welsh. I have a splattering ...  but I wouldn't be able to grasp a full conversation & certainly would struggle at the moment to perform in Welsh, although I will take some lessons in the Summer so that I at least can feel more confident in the basics.

As an artist living in and creating on the West Coast, I feel it is very important to celebrate and thank Wales for giving me the space and inspiration to grow  and will do this by incoporating Welsh Language into my production, even though I don't actually speak it myself.

I will do this by interviewing and recording welsh language voices ... lyrics, stories etc translatted and inter-generational live read throughs

Why not mix this recording and instead of burning it down to CD find a company that put it to vinyl for me!!

And then I can design the round bit that goes in the middle in a sort of twirly Kaleidoscope way so that is looks beautiful when it spins round on the phonograph ...

But ... mmmm ... it's going to be very quiet ... I need to rig it up to a speaker (time to speak to a sound engineer for advice)

AND THEN IT DAWNED ON ME THAT I HAVE THE PERFECT THING FOR A WELSH LANGUAGE AMPLIFICATION SPEAKER SAT RIGHT HERE IN MY LOUNGE  ...

DAI PLASTIC

I am having a meeting this week with the engineer to finalise the hows and wherefors but pretty much this all seems possible!!! The most costly part may be the making of the vinyl so will need to google a few specialist companies and ask for help/advice

We will cut the sound holes into him before the collage of West Coast News Papers ... then decorate him, install the electrics, seal him up ...

And then dress him as Pergrin the Fisherman ... so all I need to do now is find out what he would be wearing ...

See my next blog for a very exciting adventure that led from our visit to Cenarth Coracle Centre !!

Hey folks, I know from my Blog stats that nearly 2000 people have visited Fusion Inspire in the month that I've been on line here, and am blown away that 29 of you have chosen to follow me ... thank you x

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Much Love and Peace to you at Easter & on every day of the year ...

www.cherylbeer.co.uk