Aether continues a field recording discipline that extends listening beyond the limits of human perception, revealing electromagnetic environments that exist alongside the audible world. Recorded in three remote locations – the Nevada Desert (2016), St Agnes in the Isles of Scilly (2021) and the Pyrenees (2023)—the works were created using a Stephen P. McGreevy VLF receiver. The environments were chosen for their lack of technological interference, where human-made electromagnetic activity recedes and the Earth’s own radio environment emerges. 

Stephen Shiell is a London-based sound artist, improviser, composer and field recordist working across experimental music, radiophonic art and site-responsive practice. His recorded works, live performances, sound walks, and workshops explore listening, gathering and performing as social, ecological and political acts, engaging with sound as a means of understanding place and environment. Drawing on field recordings, found and self-built instruments, electromagnetic sound and live electronics, he creates immersive works spanning solo and collaborative performance, radio and participatory projects. He is a certified Deep Listening practitioner and one half of the duo Blanc Sceol. He works collaboratively through Surge Cooperative on listening-based projects along the Channelsea River in East London.