hello. It is Wednesday lunchtime and I am sat in BEK’s electronics studio looking out over the port and across to Sandviksfjellet, one of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen. Sam is sat behind me working on a poster for the next Petrichor gig. I feel slightly odd writing you because I know I’m going to post this blog post on instagram and tag BEK, which means people will see it, which is altering the way I write. Also I normally write you about things that have happened within the past few hours, but each day since we arrived I have been too tired to write you, leaving me with the task of remembering and reconstructing. Something I am not very skilled at.
We arrived in Bergen on Sunday afternoon. It was my first flight in 7 years, we woke up at 04:30 and arrived at our apartment at 15:00. The process reminded me of the journeys to Ireland we would make when I was a child, before my father decided he hated airports and we would only travel to Ireland by ferry. I slept through the whole 2hr flight. At the immigration point Sam and I split ways, as a non EU national Sam had his fingerprints and photo taken, something I was able to avoid.
On Monday we made it to BEK. I’m very grateful to be here, it feels very special to be in a place designed for sound art making. This is a common feeling I have when traveling away from London. I think because when I am away I am not bound by the very heavy realities of my daily life, when I am away there are possibilities. Residencies give you space.
Writing these words has made me feel a little homesick, for many years I felt as though I did not have a home in London, now that I do I find myself missing it. I think this is in part because I find myself struggling with exhaustion and part because I am having an allergic reaction to something in the apartment we are staying in, I wake up with a swollen face and weeping eyes, even now after being at BEK for a few hours my nose still runs.
BUT!! Even through the exhaustion I am excited. On Monday I set up the first of four streamboxes for Reveil, which you can listen to here:
Monday was mostly spent settling in, configuring devices on the wifi, creating a stream page for our BEK soundcamp, fixing my radio, and listening to the stream from just outside the window. You can view the stream page here: https://streams.soundtent.org/2026/streams/utc2_-a05d6ba6-0a82-4ded-8f7c-069cff1f8e8a
Some listening notes from Monday:
Listening 20.04, BEK - Streambox_md
17:20
The streambox has been live for a few hours now. Some men have started a bbq on the balcony. the wind has picked up and now it is buffering the mics v heavily. i think about moving them1. i think about the rhythm of the wind. i think about the movement of sound through the air. i think i about overload. i think about the gulls who appear to be floating, gliding above the wind that buffers the microphones. i think if i wasn't sat in the studio with such a beautiful view in the sunshine, if i were in a gloomy room, this buffering may be infuriating. there is a bit of rubbish on the floor, i think from the men's bbq. it is dancing around the balcony, it is a corner of a plastic bag, it is very high pitched. i think about the relationship between the high pitched rubbish moving sound and the intermittent cut outs from wind buffering. the movement. it is very difficult to listen *to* bergen through this stream. i begin to record a small section of the stream. so that once you have read this you can listen to what i am listening to. i stop the recording. i will leave the streambox on the balcony overnight. i think it will be safe.
the sun is very bight. it is behind the BEK building now, and it is illuminating the mountain opposite me. i think we will walk up the mountain tomorrow. the last predicted day of sunshine for a few days. i do not think the echo of the mountain is very obvious, except for when a helicopter passes over head, like it is now, or when a boat horn sounds. then i think the landscape is audible. i am reminded of spurn point. listening high up above a body of water. in between moments of wind buffering.
i am going to make something to reduce the wind buffering here in the BEK workshop and then sam and i are going to go buy groceries. i am still very tired from the travelling.
(1) the microphones
17:31
17:56
i tried a series of interventions to reduce the wind buffer. I attempted to build a shelter using concrete slabs but this cut out the wifi connection between the streambox and the building. then i encountered many signal issues trying to find better locations for the streambox. truth be told the sounds of the balcony leave little to be desired. around the side of the building it is currently sheltered from the wind but there are large building ventilation fans droning away. if the streambox was lowered below hip hight it lost connection to the wifi. tomorrow i will buy sim cards however i have had conflicting reports on how easy / hard it is to get hold of one as a non-norwegian. i may have to resort to asking someone to buy one for me.
i have decided to take the streambox home to listen to the street where we are staying.
18:21
Yesterday Sam and I made an effort to get into BEK in the morning to work so that we had the afternoon free to walk up to Fløyen. I shared our proposed schedule for the BEK soundcamp with the producers here, arranged meet ups with local artists, and Sam and I revised the remaining graphics that need to be made and shared before Reveil. Before we left we shared our guide on sound camping.
The walk up to Fløyen is very simple and very steep.As we were climbing up a very steep street we met an old woman who asked us something in Norwegian, then asked if I were Norwegian in english, and then told me “we used to have a saying here, if you want to get around, hang on” she then linked her arm in mine and laughed. I offered to walk with her up the hill but she laughed again and said we were too fast for her, she unlinked her arm and walked across the street.
I like how people interact here. I like the connection. I find it comforting to acknowledge that we share the space with each other. It is not a idilic though, in our short time here I have seen “WHITE GENOCIDE” and “FUCK RAMADAN” graffiti. Both pieces were scratched out in some attempt to remove or obscure the message but its clear there is a white supremacy presence in the town.
We walked through the town and up through winding concrete roads passing houses, kindergartens, and workshops until we reached a rocky mountain path. Often we were passed by children or people on bikes. I had brought a streambox with me and purchased 20GB of data for my modem, unfortunately the SD card was corrupted and we weren’t able to stream. I did take multiple speed tests throughout the walk and there is a strong and sable signal all the way up.
It has taken me a long time to write you all of this, like I said I am not very skilled in reconstruction. I broke up the writing by troubleshooting the corrupted SD card and having a sandwich with Sam. Today’s work is mostly focused on preparations and production work. Now that I have a working streambox with a data sim I can take it up the mountain again, tomorrow we are meeting Knut and visiting the Sami listening hut.
There are sparrows chirping around the streambox at the moment, I can’t see them out the window, I can only hear them on the stream. I have spent around 15 hours listening to the streambox outside, slowly I am becoming familiar with the timings of the boat engines, and the echo off the mountains. The wind comes and goes but is strongest in the evenings.
I’ve made Sam and I a cup of tea and I am going to join a soundcamp production meeting now. I’ll write you again next time I have the energy, if you are in Bergen and are interesting in joining our Soundcamp on the 2nd of May, please mail me at: contact [at] mortimerdrew [dot] co [dot] uk, with the subject line SOUNDCAMP BEK.
Mortimer Drew ~ blog 