„Radio signals are limited under the river and the constant roar of the 433 makes easy listening difficult. iPods are turned up high and Metro sentences are read and re-read. The Tunnel is just a means of getting from A to B, which is what most users need.” ( Alan Dunn, „When two worlds collide”, http://www.alandunn67.co.uk/soundtrackforamerseytunnel.html )
Werner Moebius‘ radio piece “Soundtrack for a Mersey Tunnel – extended” refers to a project by Alan Dunn in Liverpool 2008. Artists were commissioned to create soundtracks for the bus route 433 New Brighton – Liverpool. This bus spends 2 minutes and 33 seconds underneath the River Mersey, transporting passengers from the peninsula Wirral to Liverpool City and back. These sound pieces, partly recorded inside the Tunnel or in its immediate environment, were compiled on a CD an edition of 433 pieces.
Werner Moebius modifies the concept of acoustic interventions in relation to the Mersey Tunnel by using specific sound qualities of the tunnel architecture. He sketches an audiovision of a new, extended, imaginary non-place.
On the one hand Moebius uses his own sounds recorded in the City of Liverpool and the neighbouring Merseyside / Wirral region in the Northwest of England, and on the other hand he uses samples from the contributions of a.P.A.t.T., Büchler & Wand, Caroline Kraabel & Phil Hargreaves, Claire Potter, Gintas K, James Chinneck, Mark Pilkington, Ocean Viva Silver, Patricia Walsh, Pete Wylie & Jeff Young, Roger Cliffe-Thompson, unclejim und Wibke Hott & The Tunnel Choir, that were published on CD.
Werner Moebius enters an acoustic space which is real yet imaginary, a paradox constellation between concrete and abstraction. He sketches an audiograph of the European Cultural Capital of Europe 2008 Liverpool and its environment in the form of a fragmentary cut up collage.
(Text: Werner Moebius, May 2008; translation: Anna Soucek)
