Marine Harps
Marine Harps is a sound installation that renders the rhythms of the ocean into gentle, breathing tones. A chorus of purpose‑built instruments is placed in the intertidal borderlands where sea meets land. Some harps sense the touch of moving water across their strings — like a cello bow drawn by the swell — producing harmonies of an otherworldly string orchestra. Others instruments respond to the rise and fall of the waves, forming sea‑powered bellows that draw air through whistles and reeds, creating the effect of a vast oceanic harmonica.
Temporarily installed in shallow waters, aligned with rock platforms, sea walls, or tucked beneath wharves and jetties, Marine Harps gives voice to the ancient dialogue between land and ocean. Each tide turns the coastline into a vast living instrument, revealing the hidden music of the shore.
In-development - Ocean bellow instruments
Prototype instrument building. Reed pipes sourced from a deconstructed khaen and placed within a large bamboo pipe that acts as an oscillating water column - a kind water-driven bellow. Khaen pipes have been reconfigured in a cluster and positioned in such a way that reeds are above and below a ‘blutack plug’ so that some sound on the blow and others on the draw. Large bamboo pipe designed to be partially buried in sand with large hole cut to receive ocean waves.
First field test of bamboo instrument near Cudmirrah Reef, Shoalhaven NSW Australia.
Using a PVC pipe to test whether an oscillating water column can be used to sound a wind instrument. The PVC pipe is open at the downward ocean end and capped at the upper end. The cap has 6 holes drilled into it, each containing a single ‘tuning-pipe’ reed. The reeds face alternating directions and use different pitches to differentiate the blow and draw of the water column.
Testing PVC ‘ocean bellows’ concept at Berrara Cove, Shoalhaven NSW Australia
A wooden variant of an oscillating water column modelled on a design used for large-scale wave energy capture. The design served as a testbed for a variety of wind instruments including: bagpipe reeds, a siren whistle, kettle whistles and a bird warbler.