‘The McBrides are from here’: Listening to Green Ways as creative cartophony

In this article I discuss how Áine O’Dwyer and Graham Lambkin’s 2018 album Green Ways connects with recent criticisms of sound mapping practices. Following an interpretation put forward by the artists themselves, I investigate the cartographic aspects of their project, and how these are conveyed in an album format. The concept of cartophony, suggested elsewhere by Samuel Thulin, is employed as a way to consider different relationships between sound and mapping practices that extrapolate common assumptions of what sound maps are and how they operate. First, I listen to how the artists create sonic performances in which they interact with different elements of the places they are performing in, making sounds not only in the place but also with the place. Then, I consider the different ways in which specificities of place are mapped through the incorporation of speech and singing. Finally, I show how the album’s underlying narratives directly address the problematic distinction between performance situations and everyday life. Considering the project’s unusual emphasis on the artists’ presence, as well as its incorporation of speech, singing and artistic performances, I suggest that Green Ways invites us to broaden our understanding of what field recordings and sound maps can be.