❋ Hayley Suviste

Sound Art, Moving Image, Field Recording


Hayley’s practice is grounded in listening — to people, environments, and the stories and memories they hold. She works with oral histories, field recordings, and moving image, gathered through her own practice, community workshops, or drawn from archival sources. From these materials, she weaves sonic and visual worlds through installation, live performance, and long-form audio-visual and radiophonic work. Often using multi-channel and ambisonic sound, she creates environments that place the listener within them, where quieter details come into focus.

She is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD at the University of Manchester’s NOVARS Research Centre, funded by the NWCDTP. Her research explores oral histories as compositional material, alongside the ethical considerations of working with recorded voices in sound-based practice, including engagement with her own family histories and collaborative methods.

She has received commissions from Sounds from the Other City, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, North West Sound Heritage, New Substance, Olympias Music Foundation, and Quays Culture/MediaCityUK/Mediale, for which she collaborated with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been artist in residence at Maajaam (Estonia), Elektronmusikstudion EMS (Sweden), Forestry England, the University of Salford Acoustic Laboratories, The Glasshouse International Centre for Music (Newcastle, UK), and Yorkshire Sound Women Network (University of Hull’s Ambisonic Studio). Her live performances have been presented at venues and festivals across the UK and internationally.

Events
Contact


Bandcamp // YouTube // Instagram


info@hayleysuviste.co.uk

❋ Navvies (2022)


Navvies recognises the role of the 17,000 navvies who dug the Manchester Ship Canal. From their labour flowed the city of Salford, Greater Manchester’s industrial success, and eventually: Salford Quays and Media City itself. The Navvies Union estimates that up to 1,100 of these navvies died digging the Canal, with more injured. These men migrated from all areas of the UK, alongside thousands from Ireland, who, in particular, faced extreme prejudice.

The composition weaves together the voices of the Salford Loaves and Fishes community group, who share their insights into the navvies' experiences and reflections on their present-day lives in Salford. These personal accounts are combined with field recordings and music performed by the BBC Philharmonic.

This project was commissioned by Mediale and premiered at Lightwaves Festival 2022 in Media City. The composition accompanied visuals by Matthew Rossier, which saw dozens of anonymous individuals endlessly digging under the water, being projected into the Manchester Ship Canal – only their white spades and barrows moving.



Navvies (2022)




Navvies at Huron Basin in Salford Quays for Lightwaves 2022
Navvies at Huron Basin in Salford Quays for Lightwaves 2022
Digging the Navvies Community Garden in Salford Quays with Loaves and Fishes
Workshop with the BBC Philharmonic