A multilayered soundscape combining live performance and pre- recorded sounds.‘Not Cricket’ began life as simple field recordings of crickets and mating frogs from Thailand in 2006. Further recordings of crickets were added, a selection of ‘electronic crickets’ (electronic devises replicating the natural sounds of crickets) and artificial bird noises made using a child’s recorder, an Andean Flute and a porcelain bird warbler whistle. Together, these create a rich and varied soundscape which to the untrained ear, was easily mistaken for a real environment.
When performed live, Alison plays further bird calls using the same instruments used in the recording to produce playful ‘call and response’ themes between man and ‘nature’. The ‘Electronic Crickets’ are triggered live, blending into the background of noises until it is impossible to determine what is ‘real’ and what is a play upon the senses.
Audience members questioned which birds had made the original sounds in the recordings, despite having witnessed those sounds being played live on instruments. Although they were exactly the same sounds, people naturally assumed that only the sounds played live were artificial, whilst all of the pre-recorded sounds were ‘real’.
Successfully fooling an Ecologist on the opening night of ‘Sonic Art’ at the Brighton Fringe Festival ‘Not Cricket’ questions our ability to understand the sonic landscapes around us. Highlighting that what we hear may not be quite what we imagine it to be.
