Four Shepherds (2011) is a sound composition produced produced with community of goat-herders in Covas do Monte, in the São Macário mountains in central Portugal. The work was centred on the relationships between the local shepherds, landscape, and the Iberian wolf. The composition enacts a re-mapping of geographic and acoustic territories through multichannel sound production (specifically the contested territories co-habited by wolves and the people of Covas do Monte), and the narrative possibilities opened up through reconstructing the individual paths or journeys of four shepherds within an immersive sound environment.
Four Shepherds, Four Journeys, Four Audio Channels
Listen to a stereo sketch Anda Lá! (above) produced during production.
A Google Maps image showing the various routes to pasture taken by the shepherds of Covas do Monte.
Covas do Monte is one of the few villages in the region where a communal shepherding system is still employed to manage the approximately 1,500 goats that are owned and kept there. The goat-herders’ territory is shared with the Iberian wolf, a species hunted almost to extinction across Spain and Portugal in the Twentieth Century. Bounded by the river Douro and two major roadways, the wolves territory is restricted, such as that wolves born in the area will die in this same valley. The shepherds of Covas do Monte employ a range of personalised cries, designed to scare off wolves that lie in wait of prey in the vegetated mountainside. The cries seem highly personalised and adapted to the penetrate deep into the ravines and slopes of São Macário mountain.
Four Shepherds was premiered in Covas do Monte as part of the Vozes de Magaio Festival in 2011, organised by Binaural / Nodar. It has subsequently been performed at Goldsmiths University Great Hall, Whitechapel Art Gallery, and Centro de Arte Experimental UNSAM, Buenos Aires.
Credits:
Fieldwork carried out during an artist residency residency hosted by Binaural/Nodar.
Photographs courtesy of Binaural/Nodar. Special thanks to the shepherds of Covas do Monte. Additional thanks to Luis Costa, Ana Fernandes, Carina Martins and Manuela Barile for support.
Technical details:
Title: Four Shepherds
Year of Production: 2011
Duration: 11 mins 00 secs
Format: WAV, 4-channel audio