Residency:

This project based in Covas do Monte, was one of a series of residencies with international artists hosted by Binaural/Nodar as part of 'Vozes de Magaio' ('Magaio Voicescapes'). The three week residencies culminated in a two-day festival, taking place in the villages of Sequeiros, Covas do Monte and Nodar.

Synopsis:

Four shepherds; four journeys; four loudspeakers. The focus for this project was based on a series of proposed recordings with different shepherds of the village of Covas do Monte; each shepherd carrying a lavalier microphone and portable digital recorder to document their particular journey to the mountain accompanying their flock. The resulting material, produced with little input from myself beyond mounting the lavaliers at the beginning of the journeys, would form the basis for a four-channel documentary sound work.

Maps:

The people of Covas do Monte use a communal shepherding system, in which a number of shepherds are employed on a rota. Each shepherd may decide to take the village's goats, numbering approximately 1,500 at the time of writing, via one of a number of routes to graze on the mountain.

Download a simple map displaying the principle routes used by the shepherds of Covas do Monte, viewable in Google Earth - Maps of Covas do Monte

If you do not have Google Earth installed on your computer, you can download it here - Google Earth

Diary Excerpt:

A call to herd the flock; a shriek to frighten the wolves. Today I made a series of recordings, sketches, along the semi-dry river bed leading from Covas do Monte to the foot of the mountain. The same route I had followed with Luís and 'Auntie' Maria Martins two days ago; where María had performed an almost unbroken twenty-minute series of calls and shrieks from the incline, and I had been stood right next to her, listening to her voice answering back from the slope on the opposite side.

This morning it is Fátima and Rosa who take the goats to the slope. I wait on a raised platform in the middle of the river bed, where the goats will pass by on both sides of me; hundreds and thousands of stones 'tinkling' under the steps of their hooves creating a dense weave of sound, punctuated by the hissing of the accompanying shepherds. Reaching the slope, Fátima and Rosa banter, "Olha, viste esta merda de gado?" ("Look, did you see that shit of a goat?", "I think it went this way, it belongs to Manuel João..."). In between words, Rosa exhales series' of whooping cries, rising and then falling in pitch; her voice emanating out like waves across the stones and shrubland before retreating back into the valley, returning three times as an echo.

Rosa is the new heroine of my project. I hope she may accept my proposal tomorrow to carry a small lavalier microphone and digital recorder with her, as she accompanies the goats from the paddocks up to the base of the mountain. Tomorrow morning I'll ask, and we'll see.

Credits:

Fieldwork carried out at the Nodar Artist Residency Centre (Nodar, Pt).

Photographs by Carina Martins for Binaural/Nodar. All rights reserved.

Special thanks to Luis Costa, Ana Fernandes, Carina Martins and Manuela Barile for their support