Sonorama: Listening to the View from the Train
Author: Claudia Molitor
Publisher: Uniformbooks (2019)
Located on the train journey between London St. Pancras and Margate, Sonorama is an audio work by composer Claudia Molitor that offers sounds and voices for the otherwise silent view from the train. The work is downloadable as an app for listening with headphones.
Imagining the journey itself as the ‘score’ Molitor has composed a cycle of works and collected interviews, readings and archival material which respond to both the present, and the history of the route. With each track relating to a different point or area on the line, the work has been informed through a collaboration with historian David Hendy and the British Library. The tracks imagine topics as diverse as visio-centricity, Roman history and hop-picking, with a variety of contributors such as flautist Jan Hendrickse, saxophonist Evan Parker and writer Charlotte Higgins.
Sonorama: Listening to the view from the train, is a companion to the audio experience. It reproduces the complete graphic score of Molitor’s interpretation of the journey, locating the thinking behind the composition and the selection of other material.