Artist Spotlight is our regular feature introducing you to Cities and Memory artists around the world with an in-depth interview. In this edition, we introduce you to Úrsula Bravo, a nomadic field recordist and sound artist who works on sound ecology and composition under the name of LES (laboratório experimental do som).

My practice is a hybrid between field recording, writing and thinking through sound and electronic musical composition, from the mimicry of natural sounds from digital processes, to the experience of sending music to nature to understand how sounds and species relate to each other.

I am very interested in intangible heritage and pedagogical experiences in schools for the transmission of foley and the practice of field recording.

Children are real magicians, sound practice for theatre or intangible heritage projects are my favourite subjects.

The interview continues below ⬇️, and this map collects together all of Úrsula’s contributions to Cities and Memory: 

I was born in Murcia, a place where the Arabs built the irrigation system called ‘acequias’ in XII century.

Those small rivers made possible an amazing natural ecosystem integrated into urban life. That led to a rich animal life, and abundance in agricultural production, not centralised, but for everyone. Which means that you can feel the frequencies of insects, fish…

Now as a nomad, I like to choose natural places, where I can feel the massive sound of the wind and the humid atmosphere that helps in the spatial effects.

Sound has always been like a mystery since I was a child, I am a very sensitive person and the acoustic experience is something that goes through my skin, I remember telling stories to my little brother when we were both children, with abstract songs without verbalising words, also playing to listen behind the walls, it is an open language in which the expression is much purer, more connected with empathy.

Over the years I have practised models of amplified listening that have changed the way I inhabit the world, bringing me closer to processes in which physics is more present, to understand how the mechanical wave of sound permeates over time. The deep time in sound and its relationship to the space and matter around it.

What I like most is to listen to inaudible acoustic processes in an amplified form, to translate them into our spectrum of perception, and what I really enjoy is the pedagogy, the creative practice of sound installation, and playing with jazz.

Pedagogy, or sound ecology practices, which I am working hard on, I am also interested as a composer in ecomusicological processes of creation, where I can find more expanded patterns and harmonies.

I also love to catch light storms with FM radio, and tune in to the electromagnetism around me, in an audible format.

I am very happy with the piece Lorelei because at that moment I was feeling the moans, and it helped me a lot to manage the sadness through a mythological figure like a mermaid.

And I love the spatiality, I remember the atmosphere of the storm. I recorded it in a natural park in Spain, in Teruel, a place that was mythological for prehistoric tribes because of the resonance of its caves. Also embodying the archetypes of women through song is a healing thing.

Hildegarth Westerkamp is a really interesting artist, how she tuned into the sound in the simultaneity of the journey of the sound wave, which she said was in constant tune with the medium.

Chris Watson, is a field recordist that I also admire a lot for the techniques and tricks he uses to make his recordings, as well as currently accompanying David Attenborough. And for the finale, I recommend this book, The Order of Sounds: A Sonorous Archipelago by François J. Bonnet.

The wind, and the sound of rain. In the land where I was born, it is suffering a very deep desertification process, due to bad management of some natural/urban processes, like those irrigation ditches I was talking about, and now listening to the sound of water in public spaces is a real luxury.

The wind is something that amazes me a lot, the friction it has on the skin and the electrostatic charge it develops in the body field.

Right now, I purchased new gear, a beautiful soil microphone. The last time I used it, I was listening to the ants talk. And it was super sweet.

Right now I am focusing on limited my choices, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all of the software and/or hardware. So I am working on using one synth/plugin for a few days at a time to really get to know it and get creative with it. I am also working on a new album that will be a blend of ambient and minimal electronic works.