Riverlandia

This immersive fictional audio story explores the life of a river valley at a time of ecological change, as narrated by ten of its inhabitants, most of whom are non-human. It follows a teenage girl who is struggling to fit in at school and is uncertain about her future, but who finds meaning in the landscape. Points of view include the river itself, a bullhead fish, a dragonfly, an alder tree, sheep, and a skylark, and a human ranger.

The work was commissioned by the National Trust as a creative response to the landmark ‘ground zero’ river restoration project that they undertook on the Holnicote Estate, Somerset, which involved transforming part of the River Allen to recreate the wetland of centuries past, in order to increase biodiversity while also helping to prevent future flooding in the context of climate change. This is part of a tapestry of biodiversity regeneration work that they are doing across the estate, including connecting woodlands to create improved wildlife corridors, and supporting regenerative farming.

I set myself a creative challenge in the work to incorporate a majority of non-human voices in the narrative in order to explore our entanglement with the natural world and the impact of human actions on the lives of other species, including plants, animals, and fungi.

A wonderful cast of actors and comedians voice the ten points of view in the story: Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones), Bethany Antonia (House of the Dragon), Mike Wozniak (Junior Taskmaster), Spencer Jones (Ted Lasso), Tom Parry (Your Christmas or Mine?) Will Adamsdale (Perrier Award Winner), Severine Howell-Meri, Alice Barclay, and Richard Dale.

The rich, spatial soundscape was designed by Nicholas Allan, incorporating field recordings from the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate, which inspired the story, and sounds from the British Library’s archive.

Commissioned by The National Trust. Funded by the Green Recovery Challenge Fund. With special thanks to Ben Eardley and the National Trust Holnicote team.