Signal Chain — Episode 5
Welcome to the fifth episode of Signal Chain. This pop-up newsletter is a creative collaboration between generative musician Duncan Geere and photographer Oliver Holms.
We’re taking turns to send new work to each other. Each new piece is inspired by the piece before. We’re building a chain of influence together and you’re along for the ride. New installments are released on the 1st and 15th of every month, and you can unsubscribe at any time using the link in the footer.
::SC05::
Wow, Oliver. Your photo gave me some powerful pangs of London nostalgia. The towerblock, the red lights on the skyline. I lived in London for five years, between 2007 and 2012, and have mixed memories from it. There are many people and places that I miss greatly, but I was also damaged by London in ways I wasn’t prepared for. Whenever I go back, I’m always slightly guarded as a result. I lean toward the “tourist” role, despite knowing the city pretty well. It feels easier to handle that way.
I think those inclinations, to be a tourist, fed into the creation of my track in response. It’s centred around an old sample, taken on the Tube. There’s also some influence from M83’s 2003 album “Red Cities, Dead Seas & Lost Ghosts”, which I was listening to a lot around that time, in the drones and melodic line running over the top. It’s a melancholy listen, it reminds me of late nights in the summer of 2009.
Click the player to listen to the track.
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I’d be curious to hear how you feel about London, as a current resident, a decade later.
- Duncan