Alan, tell me how did you come up with the idea for creating a soundtrack for a Mersey tunnel.  
 
I moved from Liverpool to Wallasey in 2003 and was working at FACT so I started taking the 433 bus which stops at the end of my street - a four minute walk - and took me through the Kingsway into Liverpool. Over the years, you try reading, listening to music, chatting to people. It always struck me as a ’switching’ time for me - between Wirral and Liverpool - a time to switch on before work or vice versa. It was a space in my day that was symbolically a time to force myself to be creative rather than switch off, to see what happens. And I liked the connection between the bus number and John Cage’s 4?33?.  {pgomakase}

Similar to the ‘Bold Street Project’ I set up at FACT - that was about the space before getting into FACT, about being alert and aware inbetween A and B as well as at A and B. And I started timing the journeys on my phone and it did average out just over two and a half minutes which seemed like a logical length for the tracks to be.
 
Also, the design for the CD represents other aspects - the front actually shows part of the tunnel near where I live that was closed in the mid-1960s and the back shows the ‘above-surface’ of the North West coastline with a couple looking across a large expanse of water with a boat passing, (military) boats being the reason that the Mersey has tunnels rather than bridges.

And this project forms part of the work of 67projects, a non-for-profit commissioning body that I chair. With a grant from the Arts Council, I was able to develop this work and the major ‘dadoption’ set of billboards in Liverpool in October 2007.
 
Other journeys - I think they would have to be journeys I took. The first major project I ever did back in 1990 was a billboard I designed and installed for a year on the retaining wall at Bellgrove Railway Station in the east end of Glasgow - a station I passed every day for six years while going to Art School.
 
Now some tracks have been recorded in the tunnel and others are merely a celebration of it’s existence - did you have to arrange many visits for artists/musicians to go down the tunnel or was it a one shot deal. How many tracks have been recorded in the tunnel
 
Tracks recorded in the tunnel specifically for this CD:
Roger Cliffe-Thompson (two spoken word tracks) recorded in Kingsway
Wibke Hott & The Tunnel Choir - recorded in depths of Queensway
Pete Wylie & Jeff Young - spoken word recorded in Kingsway
AD&THEFILMTAXI - recorded 2?33? of sounds from inside the 433 bus in the Kingsway
 
All these above were arranged by myself in conjunction with Mersey Tunnels and merseytravel
 
Prior recordings:
Tracks by Caroline Kraabel & Phil Hargreaves and Mark Pilkington contain audio previously recorded in the two tunnels
 
Of the others:
Phil McHugh’s was recorded on the Wirral promenade looking over to Liverpool, roughly above the tunnels
Ocean Viva Silver’s was based on memories of when she lived on the Wirral
Pavel Buchler, Matt Wand, Claire Potter, It’s Murder Beams, Sex Education, Becky Shaw, a.P.A.t.T., Patricia Walsh, Werner Moebius are all/have been Liverpool, Manchester or Chester based
  
How did you pick the artists to be involved in the project?
 
Firstly I invited Chris Watson, Becky Shaw and Philip McHugh as I was aware they all had audio material that could be slightly reworked. Then, a group of artists I had previously worked with (Wibke Hott, Pete Wylie, Jeff Young, Paul Draper), some I knew (Claire Potter, Roger Cliffe-Thompson, James Chinneck) and the rest from an open call for submissions that I issued via Sound Network. And finally, I felt that it lacked a guitar-based instrumental opener so I found It’s Murder Beams via Internet research.
  
Do you catch the 433 bus?
 
Yes - see above. It’s an Arriva service, although since starting on the CD, First North West run an alternative bus, from the same bus stop - the 33. 
  
Where can people pick up copies of the CD now.  Or should they try being the 233rd car driving through the tunnel in order to get one. 
 
Mersey Tunnels and merseytravel were given 233 copies to give away - best to contact merseytravel at Hatton Gardens in Liverpool (see www.merseytravel.gov.uk for full contact details). Each contributor received five free copies and I kept back the remainder to send to those who genuinely can’t make it to Liverpool (email via http://www.alandunn67.co.uk/).
 
What have you got planned next -
 
I’m working on two main projects - the ‘MOTTO’ project in St.Helens as part of Channel 4’s Big Art programme. That’s in collaboration with artist Jeff Young, a group of ex-miners from Sutton Manor, around 30 community groups from across St.Helens and - for two weeks in April - artworks on just about every billboard in the St.Helens area.
 
Secondly Jeff and I are also planning an audio CD inspired by the different surrounds of The Williamson Tunnels, also something to be listened to in a very specific place and something to be listened to with the accompaniment of dripping water!
 
 
Alan’s Biog 
 
Alan Dunn was lead artist at FACT between 2001-7 on the ground-breaking community TV project tenantspin and has been making work about Liverpool since moving to the city in 1994, including projects on Wayne Rooney, PIES, the Lime Street walls, Woolton Outhouse, the metal chairs on London Road, the FUTURIST cinema, Paradise Street and Duncan Ferguson. Since 1987 he has been presenting new artworks on billboards, including collaborations with Douglas Gordon, Scanner, Felix-Gonzales-Torres, Fiona Banner, Bill Drummond and Willie Doherty and in 2003 he founded the ‘cantaudio’ CDR label for limited edition audio artworks.
Find out more www.alandunn67.co.uk/soundtrackforamerseytunnel.html

Queensway tunnel tours take place 4 times a week and are highly recommended email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.