Created by music producer and internationally renowned sound artist Martyn Ware, composer Gabriel Ware, and immersive storytellers Oscar Blustin and Anna Söderblom, It’s Always Ourselves We Find In The Sea explores how the power of water binds all of humanity together. Listeners enter and explore the space in their own time, letting the sounds wash over them, experiencing the stories and musical motifs as they build and gather then subside like the tide.

Multiple pairs of Monitor Audio’s Silver 300 7G speakers and Silver AMS 7G Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers will play a crucial role in bringing this installation to life. A renowned series, known for their exceptional audio performance, our speakers will ensure that every nuance of the soundscape is delivered with clarity, realism and impact, enhancing the overall sensory experience of the exhibit.

The installation’s immersive soundscape has been created using Martyn’s Illustrious Company specialist ambisonic 3D sound technology. The company was founded with Vince Clarke (Erasure) in 2000, to develop new forms of spatialised sound composition using their unique 3D Audioscape immersive surround sound technology. ‘It’s Always Ourselves We Find In The Sea’ is the latest in a series of over 80 international 3D sound installations that Illustrious has created and is Martyn’s second exhibition at The Piece Hall.

Martyn Ware says: “We invite visitors to enjoy a moment of contemplation and reflection in an oasis of calm. The climate crisis is one of the biggest threats to our planet right now, and thinking about it can create fear and anxiety that leads to paralysis; we designed ‘It’s Always Ourselves’ to remind each other that as well as a potential source of danger, water is essential to life on earth, infinitely precious to every living creature today and to every human culture that has ever existed.”

“The installation asks us to look beyond our framings of division to understand that it is only by viewing ourselves as part of a planet-wide ecosystem, culturally as well as geographically, that we can begin to act as responsible stewards of our world with a collective response in the face of the rising seas.”

This remarkable new experiential installation premiered in Venice in 2023 at the Magazzino Gallery of Palazzo Contarini Polignac, last May, before being displayed at the Saatchi Gallery in London last autumn as part of FOCUS Art Fair.