WAYCHINICUP

11mins 15secs ambient soundscape in stereo

Composed and recorded on-site using microphones and drum machines.  Video and sound were edited, mixed and mastered by Tom Allum.
Waychinicup is a small bay located just east of Kinjarling/Albany, Western Australia. Tom: "The water rushes in from the southern ocean and turns its head at the granite rocks where I sit and listen. I hear water gurgling beneath me and imitate the repeating calls of small birds using sounds I’ve prepared on my sampler. I do one take and then re-pack the dry-bags, paddling back to camp where the kids play and prepare my 37th birthday cake. At this place, I feel that earth can actually hold us if we the take time to observe and melt into the beauty." 
The album is available digitally via tomallum.bandcamp.com/track/waychinicup

AS THE CROW FLIES

3mins 16secs ambient soundscape in stereo

Music written by Tom Allum and  Matthew Tondut with field recordings captured in Maleny, QLD. Released on streaming platforms via Valley View Records

KARAK

2mins 50secs ambient soundscape in stereo

“It sounds little bunyips waddling around in the forest at twilight” was the feedback received when the initial demo was shared.

Matt Tondut and Tom Allum first met during the artist collaboration, artsiX, in 2023. Shortly afterwards Matt moved to Sweden, Tom to Denmark WA and a writing partnership was formed. Tom: "Looking out the window at Karri Gums and hearing those haunting calls,‘Karak’ was the first song I wrote in my home studio beside the forest".

CANAL ROCKS

Ambient album, released August 24th, 2022 

Field recording & composition by Tom Allum. Guitar by Matt Slocomb. Imagery by Spatial Co & Peter Hill. Recorded on Wardandi Boodja.
This project documents, maps and replays soundscapes of Canal Rocks near Margaret River.The project was initiated in with 'Out of the Sea', an exhibition where isolated artists across Australia collaborated using a 3D point cloud scan of the site. Tom’s sound documents, maps and replays memories for those unable to physically experience it. Out in the wind, tangled in audio cables and bashed against rocks, the works attempted to capture the disparate emotion of the site - from swirling sheltered rock pools to the turmoil of the canal itself. 

​'7 point sound blast’ is somewhat the centrepiece of the recording, epic in length, but also in narrative. The piece is an experiment using sound to map and establish space between specific points in the physical landscape. Raw field recordings were made and then reworked to form tones. These tones are then blasted back into the environment to act as audio markers for the listener. The idea is borrowed from maritime navigation where sound blasts are used to help locate vessels in seas with poor visibility. The final product serves as a meditation, traversing the site from ocean bridge, to scrubland and an exposed rocky outcrop. The album is available digitally via tomallum.bandcamp.com/album/canal-rocks