They say drowning is like a dream

Certain aspects of Jayne Fenton-Keane’s poetic oeuvre are inspired by her access to sounds from the US Navy’s Marine Audio Archive, gained while on a residency at Cornell University in 2005. The archive, dating from 1939, has samples ranging from the joyful organic sounds of airborne baby whales through to cruel descriptions and the real sounds of experiments carried out by scientists on marine life. They Say Drowning is Like a Dream is a collaborative electro-acoustic work prepared for a live/improvised duet performance in which Fenton-Keane draws on marine-based aspects of her poetry, with computer musician Steven Campbell triggering in real-time samples primarily drawn from the Navy archive, along with related news reports and readings of Fenton-Keane’s poetry. This work is intended as a thought provoking portrayal of human relationships with water, the oceans, and human interactions with marine life