Secrets is the unique environmental sound composition commissioned by Diane Fenster for her photographic installation Secrets of the Magdalen Laundries. Ten independent channels of audio are invisibly integrated with the materials of the piece (large-scale photographs printed onto hanging bedsheets) and surround the viewer with the voices of women speaking the Gaelic language.

Four women from an Irish language study program were recorded by me and form the basis of the sound experience. Almost all of the sounds are derived from these voices, either presented directly or manipulated and processed using computer software, including the composer's own custom algorithms. Despite the strongly musical nature of some of the sounds, no synthesizers or conventional instruments were used, only the processed and filtered voices, and in one section the sound of ocean waves gradually transformed into music.

Experience it now in 5.1 surround audio (stereo compatible)

The 10-channel installation contains two concentric layers of 4-channel surround sound, the inner one coming from the sheets hanging in the space, and the outer one from the walls. The inner layer contains fragments of conversation in motion. The outer layer, more distant and processed, represents the deeper emotional desires of the women of the laundries, transformed by memory and imagination. Two more channels of highly manipulated voices emanate from the washtubs. These sounds, triggered by the presence of the viewer, are heard as an imprint ghost - a secret communication across time from the objects which were such a focus of the women's work.

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