A spatial sound composition by Martyn Ware, Charles Stooke, and Gabriel Ware
It’s Always Ourselves We Find In The Sea is an ambient and experimental work composed by Martyn Ware, Charles Stooke, and Gabriel Ware. The album, set for release on 4 April 2025 by Cold Spring in CD and digital formats, contains two extended compositions arranged for 3D ambisonic sound. The work originates from a sound installation presented at the Saatchi Gallery.
Artist: Charles Stooke Gabriel Ware Martyn Ware
Release Date: 2025-04-04
Genres: Ambient, Avant-garde, Experimental Music
Label: Cold Spring: Industrial, Dark Ambient & Ritual Music News
The installation, conceived and produced by Illustrious Company (founded by Martyn Ware and Vince Clarke), includes environmental and immersive contributions by Oscar Blustin and Anna Söderblom. The audio component is a looped, two-part soundscape designed to be experienced within a meditative environment resembling a quiet water-themed space. The installation references UNESCO’s Ocean Literacy framework and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life Below Water, encouraging consideration of the human relationship with aquatic environments.
The album includes the following two tracks:
- Part One – A Call To Water (10:01)
- Part Two – The Water Circle (20:01)
The first part addresses cultural and historical interactions between humans and the concept of water as a sentient or divine presence, referencing practices across different societies that invoked sea and sky deities. The second part depicts the natural water cycle, from rainfall and rivers to the sea and back through evaporation and cloud formation.
The sound experience will also be installed at The Piece Hall in Halifax, open to the public from 4 April to 4 May 2025.
Martyn Ware (b. 1956, Sheffield) is a British musician, composer, producer, and sound designer. He co-founded The Human League in 1978 and later established British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) and Heaven 17 in 1980. Throughout his career, he has worked with a number of artists across genres, including Marc Almond, Chaka Khan, Erasure, Tina Turner, Mavis Staples, and Terence Trent D’Arby. In 2000, he launched Illustrious Company with Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Erasure) to pursue projects involving 3D spatial audio. Ware has created immersive sound environments for institutions such as the Science Museum, British Council, Royal Observatory Greenwich, Museum of London, Tate Britain, Royal Ballet, Amnesty International, BAFTA, Mute Records, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He also developed a sonic architectural installation for the British Pavilion at the Venice Architectural Biennale in 2006. In addition to his production and installation work, he lectures internationally on music technology and sound design.
Charles Stooke is a London-based musician, sound designer, and visual artist. He began collaborating with Martyn Ware in 2020 through the public art project Breath Is Invisible. Further work included contributions to We Found Love In The ‘80s, a multimedia project by Ware and Dawinder Bansal. Stooke is also a co-partner in Illustrious Company and has developed sound design for projects such as Foreign Body’s documentary on Amartey Golding’s Bring Me To Heal. He also releases music under the name Me, Charles.
Gabriel Ware is a composer focused on hybrid orchestral music for visual media, soundscapes, and live performance. Without formal musical training, he began composing in 2015, developing an individual technique for experimental scoring. He has worked on soundtracks and sound-based installations across multiple formats, including film and theatre.
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