24. Our Attempts (Leaves)

Sean Kinnear

Our Attempts (Leaves)

6:30

Our Attempts (Leaves)

Sean Kinnear

While hiking in the French Pyrenees, I came across a forest floor thick with fallen leaves. Each one, layer upon layer, undisturbed, humming with complexity. This piece explores our instinct to preserve fleeting moments, and how the very act of capturing them can transform and paradoxically create distance from what was originally felt. Field recordings of leaves are layered with sounds from a copy machine and typewriter, mimicking an effort to hold onto something. As the piece progresses, the preservation becomes more chaotic and bureaucratic — a looped office radio sample, a CD being burned, and a damaged tape recording of someone counting trying to align. A warping tone and ambient textures follow, suggesting both disconnection and presence. The piece ends where it began, with the human desire to hold onto things we feel connected to, even if they shift in the process.

This composition uses the following sounds:

Artist bio

Sound artist and electronic musician from Salford (UK), now based in Barcelona. His work spans conceptual compositions and club-focused releases with Manchester label First Light Records, as well as occasional sound design for film where he has drawn extensively on Freesound. He also recently contributed a miniature to Gràcia Territori Sonor’s annual Microtopies project. Sean’s music explores overlooked details and residues of the everyday. He is drawn to small sonic events that create visceral moments. His pieces are built around architectural or dreamlike structures, shaped through textural exploration using collage and repurposed recordings.