Simon Roth & Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck: Ground & Sound
Listen to Ground & Sound (2023), a collection of original audio works by musician and composer Simon Roth and artist Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck.
Ground & Sound explores themes of wellbeing, regeneration, care and reflection, and also enables you to hear the story of our Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden from our resident gardeners, the horticultural therapy group Grounded Ecotherapy. And you can find out more about the Hayward Gallery commissioned garden installation Precious Stones, part of the summer exhibition Dear Earth.
‘The music I made in response to the garden reflects how this inspirational oasis is visually and sonically encased within its urban and Brutalist environment.’
The enchanting musical score of Ground & Sound uses experimental field recordings and samples of the hidden sounds within the Queen Elizabeth Roof Garden and its wildlife. Activated by QR codes, placed around the garden itself, you can immerse yourself in the work whilst surrounded by the tranquil landscape of native trees and British wildflowers.
Ground & Sound is commissioned by the Southbank Centre’s Arts & Wellbeing team as part of our Planet Summer season.
More information about Arts & Wellbeing and their work
If you are unable to make it to our Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden this summer then enjoy the work in your own outdoor space via our Soundcloud.
Ground & Sound (2023)
Track list
Introduction
Creative Learning Manager for Arts and Wellbeing, Emma Nutland introduces Ground & Sound
Tour of the garden’s edible and medicinal plants
A walk through the garden with head gardener Paul Pulford and volunteer Tony. Music by Simon Roth.
Noticing and caring with Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck
The first of two mindful exercises in the garden. Text written and narrated by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck. Accompanying music by Simon Roth.
Head Gardener Paul Pulford and the History of Grounded Ecotherapy
Head Gardener Paul Pulford explains how his healing and recovery from drug addiction and the founding of Grounded Ecotherapy are intertwined.
Introduction to the garden’s hidden sounds
Simon shares the garden’s hidden sounds at the heart of his compositions and explains his musical process for the project.
Between a Rock by Simon Roth
One of Simon’s original pieces made in response to the garden. This one uses recordings of the rocks in the chalk garden and a bizarre melody from inside the hosepipe.
Assistant Gardener Michael Richardson
Michael shares the story of how he joined the Grounded Ecotherapy team and how pivotal it was in his recovery.
Moving, laughing and loving with Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck
The second of two mindful exercises in the garden. Text written and narrated by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck. Accompanying music by Simon Roth.
Through the Arch by Simon Roth
One of Simon’s original pieces made in response to the garden. This one is inspired by the feeling of walking through the covered archway and into the magic of the garden.
Tony
Volunteer Tony shares how reconnecting with Paul and Grounded Ecotherapy has motivated him and helped navigate recent struggles with depression.
Lucy
Volunteer Lucy looks back over ten years of life changing work with Grounded Ecotherapy.
Provocation by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck
Johanna invites you to contemplate our interconnectedness. Text written and narrated by Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck. Music by Simon Roth.
Hoseworld by Simon Roth
One of Simon’s original pieces made in response to the garden. Made from samples of the water sources from around the garden.
Kenny
Volunteer Kenny shares what gardening means to him and how he got involved with Grounded Ecotherapy.
Pipedream by Simon Roth
One of Simon’s original pieces made in response to the garden. This track samples the different surfaces around the garden: the furniture, handrails, fencing, tree trunks and various wooden structures.
About the Artists
Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck
Born in France and now based in rural Oxfordshire, Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck is a painter, transdisciplinary artist and cultural practitioner. Her practice composed of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, film, photography and writing often conceals ecological messages, rendered in soft and delicate methods. Her recent solo exhibitions include Dreaming about Tomorrow at Nidi Gallery and Caring & Tender - A Painter’s Photographic Diary at Terrace Square Photo Tokyo.
In 2014 Hoffbeck founded the positive and collaborative cultural project Poetic Pastel and in 2018 co-founded the publication series Journal du Thé – Contemporary Tea Culture. Coming from a family of passionate gardeners, Hoffbeck received horticultural training in France and England, and in 2021 she founded The Gardening Drawing Club.
Simon Roth
Multi-instrumentalist musician, composer and producer Simon Roth has performed all over the world and features on several critically acclaimed recordings, with artists and performers that include Chris Potter, Alice Zawadzki, Vula Viel and Adrian Dunbar. As well as the Southbank Centre he has performed at Ronnie Scott’s, the London Jazz Festival, Latitude and Green Man.
Roth has staged interdisciplinary arts events as Pop-Up Circus and works regularly with Play for Progress, a charity that uses music and creative therapies to build healthy and resilient relationships that support and amplify the voices of unaccompanied refugees and asylum-seekers. He is currently musician in residence for the Southbank Centre’s Skylark Cafe.
On his work for Ground & Sound (2023), Roth says ‘almost all of the music you hear on these recordings is made from samples I took in the Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden. The music I made in response to the garden reflects how this inspirational oasis is visually and sonically encased within its urban and Brutalist environment. There’s an intensity of life, healing and activity bubbling away here and all of the gardeners made a deep impression on me as I got to know them’.
‘When writing the music I was thinking about the spectrum of sound in the same way that head gardener Paul thinks about the spectrum of biodiversity in the garden. As I was making the music I was thinking about the highs, lows, textures, grooves and shifting rhythms and how that reflects the biodiversity in the garden’. Roth extends special thanks for this work to Paul, Kevin, Michael, Lucy, Tony, David and Kenny of Grounded Ecotherapy team for sharing their stories and memories.
Discover more ways in which the Southbank Centre is encouraging people to come together to improve our health and wellbeing through art.