A City Full of Stories is an immersive audio experience, starting at St-Martin-in-the-Fields Church, in London, and was put together with individuals experiencing homelessness.

This work is one of the shortlisted pieces for the Sound Walk September Awards 2024. 
Below, Callum Given, of The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, talk about the work.

 This city is full of stories, many unseen and unheard. The windows and the bricks of buildings older than any of us. What have they seen? Who are the strangers that find themselves sitting next to each other on a bench? Where have they been and where are they going?  Who are the creatures that we share the city with?  What might the fox or the pigeon tell us if we took the time to listen? This sound walk brings to life the imagined stories of the buildings and pathways that surround us. A City Full of Stories asks us to slow down, look around, and listen… 

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) marked 25 years of delivering projects with people experiencing homelessness in 2024, alongside the centenary celebrations of its founder, Sir Neville Marriner. To spotlight the anniversary of the programme, ASMF worked alongside participants from The Connection at St Martin’s and The Outside Project to create A City Full of Stories – a 25-minute digital sound walk installed around Westminster. 

About A City Full of Stories

50 people experiencing homelessness from across London were involved in creating A City Full of Stories. The words and music were all devised through participatory music-making and writing workshops with participants at two centres: The Connection at St Martin’s, an open to all day centre located next to the orchestra’s historic home; and The Outside Project, an LGBTQIA+ homelessness support organisation in Borough. 

The creative team was artistically led by composer and workshop leader Jackie Walduck, who started ASMF’s projects with this community 25 years ago, and writer Hazel Gould. ASMF musicians worked side-by-side with participants throughout the process, working in small groups and offering tutorials to help participants imagine the story and soundworld they wanted to create, and helping them to realise it.

The work was launched on 15 April 2024 and made free to the public for them to experience using a smartphone and headphones. The accompanying brochure can be found here. Recordings can be heard on SoundCloud. 

The Creation Process

Every element of the sound walk was inspired by participants, from determining that the route should feature a stop at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, where many head for rest and solitude, through to creating the melodies and recording the sections that can be heard in the piece.

The work was created across 28 creative, and four recording sessions, between October 2023 and March 2024. During dedicated writing sessions, participants looked at the stories they wanted to tell, using different creative prompts, such as telling the story of a London journey through the perspective of an animal; this can be heard in the final piece in ‘A Fox in London’. In music sessions, participants explored the emotions they wanted to portray and explored this through guided improvisation. The participant’s involvement was led entirely by their own interests and what they wanted to bring to the project: some participants wrote melodies and dictated how they should be performed by the group; others set up rhythmic grooves for sections of the pieces which they later performed as part of the recording; and others brought words that they had written outside of sessions as inspiration for the music-making.
Pulling together the shape of the piece – how the different sections they had written were put together – was also a team effort. 

Impact

Throughout the programme, ASMF’s activities focus on allowing participants to flourish, building trusting relationships over time and focussing on personal development and empowerment, aiming to provide increased trust in people, a sense of community, and greater motivation through sense of purpose and positive contribution. 

The sound walk project was a particular highlight for many of the participants, providing a collective focus, a feeling of being part of something bigger, and opportunity to feel a sense of pride in what they had created. Through taking part in sessions, participants reported a space to feel calm and focussed, building resilience for daily life. 

The recording sessions saw a different level of focus from our participants from what we usually see in: there was a rallying together and ‘stepping up’ as the projects reached their culmination. Once the walk had been installed, the collaborators came together to experience the finished piece, wearing headphones and following the map which was illustrated with drawings of landmarks that participants wanted to highlight. The feeling was joyful and reflective. People had tears in their eyes as they heard their ideas and voices played back to them. There was laughter and smiles as participants reflected on the creative process, and a general air of accomplishment and camaraderie amongst the group.

“My ambition is to start working again soon, and the music sessions help me to realise I’m not own my own. Taking part in the group is helping me learn to communicate with other people and know that people are there for you. They show me that we’re all together, I’m not alone, and that will be helpful if I go to work again”
– Participant

“The project made me feel more confident, gave me momentum, and let me be more creative. The day I found out about the recording I thought yes – cannot wait, let’s get there quick and let’s go go go! It inspired me. Basically, it helped me with my drug problems – yeah – to be really honest. It really did help me get off that situation. Because I’ve been sitting there day to day spaced out on drugs, but with this project I didn’t do that. It helped me get through that situation – it was the momentum.”
– Participant

“Participants showed a great curiosity with instruments, and, a willingness to experiment with different sounds and textures. For some, this was a new experience – the musicians were receptive to this, making sure that participants were not overwhelmed and that sessions were fun and light.” 
– Max Webster – Team leader at The Connection

The ASMF website features a Case Study on one participant’s experience of the project, along with reflections from the project by violinist Gabby Painter and oboist Rachel Ingleton. The Centre for Homelessness Impact recently published a blog piece about ASMF’s homelessness work, written by Head of Social Purpose Callum Given.

Audience response

32 people experienced the sound walk through guided walks with headphones provided by ASMF. A further 150 took self-guided walks, and thousands more heard the recordings through social media. A review from A Youngish Perspective remarked that “it’s nice to have locations I predominantly associate with food drops and rough-sleeping recontextualised” – achieving the aim of raising awareness of our participant’s different experience of the Charing Cross area amongst audience members.

“The combination of music and poetry created a truly immersive experience and gave me a totally new perspective on a part of the city I have known all my life; that of someone who is living there also, but experiencing homelessness. The music powerfully reflected and enhanced the words of the participants – inspirational!”
– Phillipa Bunting, SoundWalk Attendee

The winner and honourable mention of the SWS Awards 2024 will be announced around the start of 2025.