Our opening hours are 9.30am - 5.30pm. Recommended last admission: 4.30pm. Free guided tours 11am, 12pm, 1pm 2pm & 3pm.

Web Image

Evolution of Beauty – Wogan Cavern Sound Installation

22 July to 12 August

West Wales based composer and musician Richard James has created new musical works mixed
and presented in quadraphonic surround sound based on and inspired by recent excavations and
discoveries at Wogan Cavern which lies underneath Pembroke Castle.

The work is a collaboration between Richard, flute and reed player Jan Hendrickse, vocalist, musician and producer Accü (aka Angharad Van Rijswijk) harpist Rhodri Davies and musician Gareth Bonello (aka The Gentle Good).

The project has been kindly supported by Pembroke Castle Trust, the Arts Council of Wales, The Hinrichsen Foundation, and the PRS Foundation.

The musical works were inspired by recent archaeological excavations and discoveries at Wogan Cavern, and also a long-standing fascination with the origins of music and culture, and the varied musical cultures from the deep past from around the world.

Wogan Cavern was an early settlement for some of the first Homo sapiens to venture this far to the north west of Europe, and maybe even earlier human populations such as Neanderthals; the excavations are ongoing and it is likely that more evidence of early human occupation will be revealed in time.

The idea in creating this music and surround sound installation was to attempt to follow a linear
chronological timeline of how music would have evolved from an early human ‘taskscape’, and how
and when we currently believe certain musical behaviours would have developed and certain
instruments would have been invented, developed and/or adapted to be used through a process of
cultural evolution.

The idea wasn’t an attempt to re-create music from the deep past, but from extensive and varied
research to find an evocation allowing the music to somehow interact with the ghosts and shadows of the past from being recorded in the cave, and to form a bridge from deep time to our
contemporary world.

Richard would like to thank Pembroke Castle Trust, the Arts Council of Wales, The Hinrichsen Foundation, the PRS Foundation, Dr Rob Dinnis and Dr Jennifer French.

And there's more!

Scroll to Top