Raymond Watson – Unlocking: Yard side/Garden side – Launch of Sonic Art

The artist said, ‘The sound recorded on this LP was created with items from The Crumlin Road Prison Belfast and memories that still echo loud and clear.  ‘The Crum’ as it is known, was a Belfast prison where prisoners involved in the political conflict were held on remand.  I was one of those prisoners.  From the closed confines of a small prison cell, external sounds – keys, grills, locks, footsteps, voices, silence and noises often provided a visual picture of what was happening beyond the locked door – the origin of this ‘sound sculpture’ – hopefully the vision that you will have as a listener will be generated by you, your own confined space and your interaction with this sonic experience. 
 
‘This sonic art grew from an immersive audio visual installation that I created in 2016 and that I first exhibited in February 2017.  The exhibition displayed hundreds of the keys for ‘the Crum’ and an audio track created with those same keys. 
 
‘Items used to sculpt the sonic image are hundreds of the actual Crumlin Road Prison keys and their brass and aluminium ID (identification) tags, a steel prison food tray, an original ‘prison made’ grappling hook (surreptitiously constructed by prisoners intending to escape), locks, grills, echoing memories and my own words.  Additional instrumental music was created by my daughters Toraigh and Dara, on flute and harp, and the nature that blooms in the Glens.’