Sounding Water was a weekend event held at PINK, an artist-led gallery and studio space in Manchester, in October 2025. Bringing together Brehony alongside artists Lizzie King, Inland Taipan (Aisling Davis), and Hayley Suviste, the event created an expanded listening space exploring the agency of water and the histories held within it.

On Friday evening, the four artists performed a durational gathering of sound, image, and voice – interlacing field recordings, archival traces, spoken word, and moving image in a shifting, multi-channel environment that invited listeners to follow the currents of memory and place. Over the weekend, PINK was transformed into an installation space with interactive and playful elements – hydrophone play, watery score creation, plant sculpture interactions, and creative writing prompts – alongside a participatory listening workshop inspired by the practices of composer Pauline Oliveros, and a relaxed closing listening party on the Sunday.

Sounding Water marked the first gathering of this name – a proposition that rivers and water can be approached as sites of deep listening, collective memory, and community imagination.

Sounds from:

King’s Wetlands/Floodlands – considering the man-made flood defences and its multi-species inhabitants, including the water boatman. Through physical touch of plant species of the site the sounds of different species and infrastructure are sent around the installation. Field recordings from Kersal Wetlands

Brehony’s Material Listening – the hum of water-based paint machines threaded through fabric of a river, textured traces of industry and renewal along its banks. Protest, dance, and the call of an early morning rooster. Field recordings from the River Irk.

Suviste’s Bog Belly – deep within the restored wetlands, the air crackles, pops, and gurgles with the sounds of life returning to the ancient bogs and mosses – lands that humans drained and degraded over the course of a century. Field recordings from bogs and mosses of Delamere Forest.

Davis’ Saana – recorded under 24-hour Arctic sunlight, where meltwaters meet long-term lemming studies. Molecular echoes, original scores, and field samples reflect on solitude, perception, and shifting ecologies at the edge of a lake. Field recordings from Quantum Lake.

Listen on Bandcamp

Image credits: Will Rowe & Rob