Thor McIntyre Burnie and Chris Watson’s ‘A Pier at Wilton’s’ shown in Measure’s 2005 show Me and My Shadow was nothing short of revelatory. The music hall and Brighton’s great West Pier were built with in a few years of each other and in 2005 both buildings were in a transitory stage and in need of some love and attention. Thor and Chris’s three, 10 minute compositions made from the sounds of thousands of starlings flying in and out of the ball room, were transposed to the main hall of Wilton’s Music Hall. The empty building was filled with the intense rush as the birds appeared to enter the hall falling to a silent stillness in seconds as they roosted.
The fate of the two buildings separated soon after, as the West Pier burnt into the sea and Wilton’s was revitalised by director Frances Mayhew and her dedicated team and continues to be one of the most beautiful venues in London.
Over ten years ago before the West Pier in Brighton was destroyed by storms and fire, wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson and sound designer Thor McIntyre Burnie were given permission to rig up microphones in what had once been the grand concert hall. During the day, the pier was a dangerous place to venture, but on a winter’s night, as dusk fell, and the sea glowed red, it was transformed into a magical scene as tens of thousands of starlings gathered in the air above, performing their aerial acrobatics (murmurations) before descending onto the pier to roost for the night. The starlings roosted in what remained of the concert hall, and it was the sounds of these birds gathered in their night roost, which Chris and Thor wanted to capture – from dusk until dawn, when the birds departed once again on their feeding trips.
It was no easy task rigging up the concert hall with microphones. “When the wind blew” Chris said, “chunks literally fell off and were tossed into the sea like autumn leaves”. They rigged up an array of different microphones as they wanted to capture both the sense of space; the atmosphere of the concert hall, as well as close up sounds of the birds themselves. As dusk approached the first birds arrived over the pier. In time, they descended into the concert hall, and an extraordinary performance began; the sounds of tens of thousands of performers gathered together. Today the West Pier no longer exists except for some skeletal fragments. The starlings have passed into history, but what’s left are the recordings. They are the recordings of a Ghost Roost.
Listen to The Ghost Roost on the Radio 4 website here.
Listen here to ‘A Pier at Wilton’s’ recorded at Wilton’s Music Hall during Me and My Shadow in May 2005.
