e mails from Roger Clapham and Andy Pattenden brought these events to our attention last week. I’ll just run the Somerset House press release for now and look into it more over the weekend. That said, all of these film and talk events look really interesting and it’s probably worth grabbing tickets while you can.

A journey through the hidden sound worlds of the River Thames.

15 April – 31 May 2010, 10.00-18.00, Thurs 10.00-20.00 Open all day, Free admission

Somerset House was built with its own front door onto the river, The Great Arch, from which the Navy Board’s ornate gilded barge would sail upriver to Whitehall. Artist Bill Fontana returns the river to the building with River Sounding, an impressive sound installation that creates an acoustic journey through the little known subterranean spaces of Somerset House.

Over several months, Fontana has collected hundreds of hours of audio and video from above and below the surface of the Thames, from Richmond to remote locations in the Estuary, to reveal the hidden stories and sound-worlds of the river in a brand new public artwork.

Images and sounds installed in the Lightwells and Dead House – spaces far below the courtyard, usually closed to the public – create an intimate, acoustic journey and reinstate the forgotten shared history of Somerset House and the Thames.

Bill Fontana, one of the world’s leading sound artists, has installed public artworks at iconic locations in many of the world’s great cities, including London’s Millennium Bridge and Big Ben, San Francisco’s Golden Gate and Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.

River Sounding is accompanied by a series of talks and screenings by writers and artists including Richard Wilson and Iain Sinclair. Click HERE for details.