In July 2022 ten students with differing levels of musical experience from the South West London Recovery College at Springfield University Hospital began a series of workshops over a six week period. The sessions were around four hours long and were led by David Sulkin (Director of Artist Development, National Opera Studio), Alex Groves (composer), Lucas Robson (cellist), Jenny Hill (Feldenkrais Practitioner) and Joanna Harries (Opera Singer).

Each workshop started with guided body movements on the floor (using The Feldenkrais Method) to shift people’s attention from their life outside the college and instead focusing on relaxation and their bodies. This was often then supplemented with different kinds of extended breathing exercises which became an essential part of the whole project.

In the first three meetings participants were encouraged to experiment with the different sounds they could make with an emphasis on using the breath. The cellist Lucas Robson and opera singer Joanna Harries guided some of the initial sounds as the people’s vocal confidence grew.

Different swatches were introduced in the sessions as a prompt to think about making sounds. After observing the fabric’s colour, texture, description, weave and appearance they were expressed into an informal song format. Over the remaining six weeks, the act of translating the fabrics into sound was developed through discussions, graphic score illustrations and improvisation. The participants finally selected six contrasting fabrics for their range of features and qualities – seersucker, velvet, faux leather, tulle and cloqué.

The students learned to collaborate within smaller groups and then as a whole. They practiced listening to themselves and the rest of the group, offering up new additions, harmonizing and joining in with new sounds.

After discussions about what associations and features people found within the different materials, each selected fabric was rehearsed over and over to refine and capture their qualities. Then, musical transitions between two materials were developed. Finally all the fabrics were voiced into one composition that organically transitioned between the six different fabrics. This was rehearsed multiple times and the final sound work recorded over a day with the group at The National Opera Studio in September 2022. The composer Alex Groves (who was with the group from the start) then arranged the recording, making sure the repeated features of the different materials from previous rehearsals were represented in the six sections.