Across Divides S2, Ep3: Soundwaves

In this episode, we sit down with composer and sound artist Karen Power to discuss her project: Hidden Life in Carlingford Lough (2024), a composed soundscape containing only sounds that were recorded on and underneath the Lough. The work seeks to amplify the sounds coming from the lough’s amazingly diverse life, which Karen hears on a par to musical conversations. It seeks to create space for locals and others to listen and perhaps discover something new about a body of water that they have lived beside their whole lives. So many of these – often tiny – creatures are simply living lives underneath what most of us think of as a largely quiet space. Karen’s work places focus on listening, as a relatively unconsidered way to connect.

Dr. Karen Power is an Irish composer and sound artist, based in Cork, Ireland. Karen’s compositions utilise two primary sources; acoustic instruments and everyday sounds. Everyday environments and how we hear everyday sounds lie at the core of Karen’s practice, with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between what we consider “music” and all other sound. She has listened and recorded in some of the world’s most isolated and challenging locations: The Arctic, Amazon, Namib Desert, Outback Australia, and most recently Antarctica. Karen’s art utilises our inherent familiarity with certain sounds, as a means of engaging with performers and audiences to alter our relationship with our world and how we behave and effect change in our living environments. Many of her works are devised to ensure that an active listening environment is created, maintained, and shared by all involved. These works simultaneously challenge the listener’s memory of hearing while presenting new contexts for such sounds, forever altering how we hear our world. Her work also seeks to actively acknowledge the change we all bring upon it.

For more information about Karen’s work, visit www.karenpower.ie