Day centre musicians create Soundbeam album
Service users at Freshfields Day Centre in Guildford have produced an audiocassette of original music in which Soundbeam features prominently. ‘Sunbeams’ contains five impressive tracks performed by service users at Freshfields.
Some years ago, as part of our integration policy, we decided to encourage our service users to participate in mainstream society by producing recorded music for sale. After unsuccessful dealings with record companies we decided to construct our own studio. Our objective was to create recordings in which virtually all the music was performed by our service users, produced and edited to be 100% commercially acceptable to the general public – we were not seeking sympathy purchases.
We decided to offer this opportunity to service users having the least participation in other activities at the centre. This includes people with no apparent verbal understanding, no speech, and restricted limb movement. Soundbeam was the natural choice for such a situation and accounts for 80% of the material on the recording.
People who have used Soundbeam will know that, like other instruments, it interacts with the performer to produce its own musical language. We have allowed this interaction between performer, equipment, pilot and producer to form the basis of our musical language. Working in this way to produce a commercially viable product from sometimes chaotic source material, presents difficult decisions to the producer.
Rhythm tracks were time consuming, and occasionally had to be played directly by the producer, although based on an interpretation of vocal sounds from the performers. Decisions regarding mixing and arrangements could often be made by judging a performer’s reaction to a particular option. Inevitably compromises had to be made, but some of the compromises on commerciality have created interesting new music, involving little producer intervention.
We hope people will like our first tape, and we hope people will buy it. We imagine it can be used as dance music, meditation music, in sensory rooms, and of course in the car or at home. We hope people will enjoy the tape, but will occasionally pause to acknowledge the considerable achievement it represents for the performers.
Sunbeams is available from the Soundbeam Project at £4.95.