Yet Brown’s family lived in Kirkhale, in Northumberland, a fairly typical small rural community, over 300 miles to the north, far from the glittering metropolitan world. His father, who died in 1720 when Brown was only four, was a farmer and land agent to the local lord, Sir William Loraine, yet the young Brown was educated at the local school in Cambo – possibly through the good offices of…
The capacity for sound to be powerfully evocative is unquestionable. An old photograph, or even a silent cine film from one’s childhood, brings back memories and can have strong emotional resonances. Listening to the ‘unseen sound’ of an old audio recording however, can almost without warning, engulf us in the feelings it triggers. The sound of a distant night-time …