Ghostly Waters | David Vélez
Gruen 231 | Postcard (+ Digital & Bandcamp code) | Digital > [order]
Between July and August 2023, I made an extensive series of underwater and subterranean recordings in the River Calder and its basin, across the towns of Warley and Norland in Calderdale, England.
About the River Calder
The River Calder is the main water source for farms in the Calderdale and Kirklees boroughs, thanks to its richness in calcium and magnesium carbonate, formed hundreds of metres deep, 310 million years ago during the Carboniferous period. At that time, the Calder basin was home to an exuberant biodiversity comparable to the Amazon rainforest. Amphibians such as Microsauria, Eryops, Diplocaulus, Labyrinthodontia, and Nectridea thrived until the “rainforest collapse,” a drastic climate shift — including a 6 °C drop in temperature — that extinguished them and many other life forms. Today, the Calder suffers from uncontrolled sewage leaks, making it the second most polluted river in England, a product of careless practices from private water forms.
Recording and Editing Notes
Using hydrophones and geophones, I documented the sounds of the river’s black-coloured water, soil, and boulders — a habitat shaped by dark minerals and organic residues as the Calder percolates through coal seams, carbonaceous shales, and ironstone. The river’s coarse, bubbling, gurgling, crumbling, tapping, scraping, and dripping sounds created a mysterious, ghostly aurality, perhaps linked to the density of the media through which sonic waves travel there, which to me echoed the river’s biological decay. Among the recorded sounds, some were particularly quirky and murky — a series of growling, expressive tones that intrigued me, as I could not identify their source. They may have been produced by fish feeding on algae, such as roaches or chubs, species especially vulnerable to contamination. Moreover, many of the recordings, especially those made underground, were so subtle that I had to set the recorder at a high level, resulting in a hiss. Friction against the hydrophone and geophone cables also introduced unwanted noise, both of which I embraced in the editing process to emphasise the pollution affecting the Calder. I then layered water, soil, and boulder sounds to create depth — drawing out enigmatic, ghostly resonances.
Reflections
The guttural sounds of roaches and chubs, the hiss, and the ghostly elements I hear in the Calder link its past and present, serving as a reminder of the environmental changes that have occurred since the era of the great amphibians of the Carboniferous. In this sense, these recordings stand as a call to defend our rivers and their inhabitants from the pollution born of private irresponsibility — to decelerate the imminent extinction of the human species and to leave future inhabitants species of the Earth a healthier ecosystem.
Illustrations
To accompany the recordings, artist and illustrator Lina Velandia created a series of drawings evoking giant amphibian ghosts from the Carboniferous era, product of her experience listening to the recordings.
Lina is a Colombian visual artist based in the UK, whose work operates at the intersection of cartoon aesthetics, pop culture, and neo-expressionism. Through spontaneous, character-driven drawings and a vivid use of colour, she explores themes of feminism, migration, well-being, and precarity, engaging questions of identity and vulnerability.
@todoloquesemuevesuena
Notes
Ghostly Waters is the fourth part of a series of artworks created using this group of recordings from the River Calder, together with the installations:
The River Within (The Urban Nature Sonic Pavillion/SAIC) Chicago, US 2024
The Calder in your Guts (Sounds of Dissent/DCI) Dublin, Ireland 2024
The Calder in your Bones (HCMF/Cultures of sound) Huddersfield, UK 2023
1. Ghostly Waters
1 Track (70′18″)
Postcards (500 copies)
Audio Mastering: Bruno Duplant
Special thanks to: Lasse-Marc Riek, Roland Etzin, Lina Velandia, Bruno Duplant, Jelena Gligorijevic, University of Huddersfield, Cultures of Sound, Dublin City University, SAIC, Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, HCMF, and Ruchi Singh.
Underwater and subterranean recordings made by Dr David Vélez in the River Calder and its basin, across the towns of Warley and Norland in Calderdale. Recorded and edited by D. Vélez in 2023, in Northern England
Illustrations: Lina Velandia
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Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2026 / Gruen 231 / LC 09488