London Fields Lido, London
19 July 2008
Nurse With Wound at London Fields Lido. It just sounds so right. And it was, too: pleasingly strange, charmingly eccentric. It was the culmination of a series of underwater sound events, staged at various venues around the UK under the banner of Wet Sounds. Their website
will tell you what you need to know there. Essentially, the set-up is this: music is played through a high-quality underwater sound system installed (temporarily) in a public swimming pool. Those swimming in the pool can thus have a quite literally immersive musical experience: with ears below the water line, a whole new listening experience is suddenly available.
NWW and Andrew Liles were perfect for this, since the setting and atmosphere of the pool, and the quirkiness of the event, were evocative of a particular strand of surrealistic English whimsy that both artists exemplify. But before they played, matters got underway with a performance by Le Couteau Jaune, about whom I know nothing except that they appear to be some sort of street (or pool in this case) theatre/performance art group. Their contribution consisted of a bloke and a woman in ‘wacky’ costumes, chasing each other in the pool. It was like open-mic afternoon in the performance art tent at Glastonbury circa 1985. Naff, in other words.
Things picked up with Andrew Liles’ set, which included a guest appearance from the very camp Ernesto Tomasini who regaled the swimmers with a rousing rendition of “I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside” in mock-operatic style. After this, Mr Liles played an assortment of electronic loops and noises and the underwater listening effect became apparent. While it was possible to hear the music outside the pool, when listening underwater the clarity and detail were vastly improved, the overall effect being almost like wearing very high-definition in-ear phones.
When NWW (Steven Stapleton, Liles and Matt Waldron of Irr.app.ext, for the purposes of this performance – it was surprising that Colin Potter wasn’t there) got going, they used a much richer array of sounds and textures than Liles’ solo set. The effect was fascinating and it was interesting to watch people experimenting with different listening techniques, the most straightforward being to lie on one’s back such that the ears were in the water, but the nose and mouth weren’t. I also tried swimming around underwater and found that the sound palette, and the overall feel of the thing, changed according to one’s location in the pool, and also whether there were other swimmers nearby, and the pool was large enough that sometimes you could find yourself swimming underwater with no-one else in view. Most of the music was based around Salt Marie Celeste (an obvious choice really) but they were adding plenty of extra live sounds, including whispered vocals by Matt Waldron which were scarcely audible out of the water, but sounded crystal clear when submerged. 
When I first read about this gig, I thought it was more a gimmick than anything else – an oddball setting for a performance, more than a genuine musical experiment – but it ended up being both of these things, and a very successful experiment at that. At the end Steve Stapleton came out from behind his gadgets to ask what it had sounded like, and seemed pleasantly surprised to be told how well it had worked. I hope it can be repeated. I was reminded of the story about Salvador Dalí commissioning a diving suit to be made for him – he planned to wear it for a lecture he was due to give. The manufacturers asked him to specify the depth of the descent he intended to make. He responded with a telegram that said, “Mr Dali will descend into the unconscious”.
-Manfred Scholido-
