CURIOUS FREQUENCIES

Howard Walmsley, 2023
Duration: 40 mins

This film is a meditation on the call and response of listening, of the relationship between personal space and the collective experience of rave culture. It also serves as a historical record of the interior of the Granada Studios building, which is no longer extant, having since been redeveloped.

Abandoned and full of dated technology, the Transmission Suite is the former broadcast hub of Granada TV Studios in Manchester.

Years after Granada TV relocated, electronic music pioneers 808 State set up their recording studio in this space to record the album ‘Transmission Suite’. 

This has great significance for the band as this building is where they made their first TV appearance 30 years previously.

Curious Frequencies documents the recording of the album, with Graham Massey from 808 State contributing thoughts on the historical significance of Granada TV in the city and the influence of the studio space on the creative process.

This instrumental music is an ideal departure point for imagination to wander. Spiralling off from the studio, the music is transposed into a soundtrack for cityscape, where  members of the public were invited to listen to the album on headphones whilst walking the streets of Manchester and to record their thoughts. We hear reveries, memories, insecurities and observations drifting through the urban environment, punctuated by reflections from Massey. 

Curious Frequencies is an experiment in audio elicitation that explores the inner worlds of these volunteer participants, the studio environment and the textured strata of the city.

Curious Frequencies features music exclusive to the film,  studio versions,  experiments, alternative recordings and mixes.

A lush dub cinematic B side.

What happens when you listen to this?