Sounds of the Ocean

Brona Martin is an electroacoustic composer and sound artist from Banagher, Co. Offaly, Ireland. Her compositions explore narrative in electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology, oral history, sound and heritage and spatial audio techniques.

‘It was really wonderful to work with the students from Newhaven School,’ she says. ‘They worked really hard on this project and took on the challenge of learning new skills and working with sounds from the environment to create new works that respond to the themes surrounding World Ocean Day. 

‘Students were given a library of sounds to explore and then they chose the theme of their composition. Some of these environmental sounds were kindly donated by world-renowned field recordist George Vlad (humpback whales from Madagascar, Icelandic soundscapes, frozen lakes in the Gobi Desert) and award-winning soundscape composer Daniel Blinkhorn (glacier and iceberg recordings from the Arctic). Some students created works that responded to the Ocean Map at the National Maritime Museum, while others chose paintings and objects from the Polar Worlds and Pacific Encounters galleries as their inspiration. They used Reaper audio production software to compose their works. 

‘We had a lot of fun working on this project. I would like to thank them all and their teachers for their hard work and the team at Royal Museums Greenwich for facilitating this wonderful project.’

Brona's portfolio of works explores the layers and textures of sounds that contribute to the overall sonic make-up of specific places, both real and imaginary. Through listening, recording, analysing and processing, the layers of a soundscape are studied in great detail.

Brona is also Lecturer in Music and Sound at the University of Greenwich where she teaches post-production sound and composition.