Michael Begg Studio
  • SonicaCraneTitlePiece
  • Titan A Crane Is A Bridge 16_Credit Louise Mather
  • Titan A Crane Is A Bridge 14_Credit Louise Mather
TITAN: A Crane is a Bridge
AeolianHarp_TITAN

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Begg’s installation is perhaps the standout at Glasgow’s Sonica… The wheelhouse becomes the humming dark heart of the crane as Begg’s electronic enfolding and eroding of the raw sonic materials sets a rich and taut piece in perpetual motion… turning the iconic structure into a gently haunted compound of wind and noise..
- The Wire

TITAN was a site specific quadraphonic sound installation located in the wheelhouse of Clydebank's TITAN crane, 150 ft above the river Clyde.


Michael was commissioned by Cryptic Glasgow to create the work for the bi-annual Sonica festival.


Field recordings, soundings from the structure using contact microphones and hydrophones were used to inform the studio compositions. 


Additionally, Michael built a number of 6' tall Aeolian harps to be fixed to the viewing platform of the crane.


Microphones fixed to the harps took the music generated by the wind and fed the signals into the sound being broadcast in the wheelhouse itself.


The work won the 2018 New Music Scotland award for electroacoustic/sound art work, and was subsequently released as a CD on Michael's Omnempathy label.

Begg’s extraordinary electronic sound installation… with huge, swelling harmonies, occasionally building to moments of ecstatic beauty… its slow-burn, cumulative effect is one of uncompromising power and inevitable decay, both a celebration of enduring strength and a memorial to its demise
- The Scotsman (UK)
Michael Begg and Linda Buckley, New Music Scotland Awards
crane at dusk
TitanWheelhouseColours
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  • TITAN - A Crane is a Bridge. 4 channel sound installation
  • Commissioned by Cryptic Glasgow for Sonica 17 Festival
  • WINNER of the New Music Scotland Award for original sound art, 2018