Travelogue: Surat →Hat Yai, sul G

About

About the work

In June 2023, I spent more than two months travelling through Thailand, from the country’s northern regions along the Malay Peninsula, through the Gulf of Thailand, and toward the border with Malaysia. Passing through Chiang Mai, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Surat Thani, Koh Samui, Hat Yai, and George Town, I travelled more than 1,150 miles by train and ferry.

Throughout this journey, I recorded the ambient sounds of travel using contact microphones, capturing the rattling interiors and material vibrations of train cabins. These recordings were processed into a fixed-media soundscape carrying the drones, movements, and rhythms of long-distance travel—the continuous sonic accompaniment that follows a body in transit.

The violin is embedded within this texture, forming a conglomerate that slowly shifts and transforms. The performer plays entirely on the G string, exploring the range of sound possible within this restriction: grainy and nearly pitchless bowing, traces of the open string, high harmonics, scraping, and other textural sounds.

The journey’s arrival point is Phra Maha Chedi Tripob TrimongkolPhra Maha Chedi Tripob Trimongkol
Hat Yai, Thailand
Photograph by worldpitou via Rexby, an Art Deco-inspired stupa constructed from coiled stainless steel. Hundreds of small bells hang within the structure and sound in the breeze. The final field recordings were made inside the Chedi, combining their gentle ringing with distant birds and the faint bleed of music being played nearby by one of the monks.

The work intersects documentation, travel journal, field recording, and composition, transforming the sonic traces of travel into musical material. A studio version of Travelogue: Surat → Hat Yai, sul G appears on the album Thailand’s State Railways.