Tuning In

Last month, we opened the doors to 14 Cavendish, London, inviting our community to celebrate our Autumn Winter 2025 collection, The Curious Mind. Through a series of installations, performances, and creative workshops in the Grade II-listed building, we explored the themes of archival discovery, lifelong learning, and shared contemplation underpinning our seasonal concept.

Weaving through murmurs of conversation and footsteps on worn wooden floors, an immersive soundscape unfolded as a meditative accompaniment. Musician Alice Boyd translated our season concept into an aural tapestry of folk melodies, field recordings, and ambient textures, enveloping visitors in a quiet, contemplative mood.

“It was an interesting challenge as I’m so used to recording in outdoor environments, but this collection was largely inspired by indoor spaces: the library or museum, the music room or conservatoire, the artist’s studio,” says Alice. “I was excited to try to capture the hushed sounds of these spaces and the practices of those who work within them.”

Alice has been drawn to nature since childhood, a passion later expressed through a degree in Geography and an artist residency at the Eden Project in 2020. Here, she created music with data collected from the plants in the Rainforest Biome, marking the beginning of her focus on field recordings. “Whether it was the sounds of my urban environment, or travelling further to capture the song of nightingales, or the pulsing – almost electronic – bubbles of air leaving aquatic plants as they photosynthesise.” Alice is creatively captivated by subtle sounds; those which go easily unnoticed by the casual observer, and one must choose to hear.

Though mostly inspired by nature, Alice’s own curiosity led her to engage with a range of styles and environments during this project. “I enjoy experimenting with different genres and moods, and am very influenced by place.” Composed over a number of weeks, her soundscape for TOAST began with a clear goal: to create something minimal, yet “rich with sound”. The twenty-six-minute recording, split into three compositions, is the culmination of exploratory play and the uncovering of new musical avenues. “Sometimes inspiration lands and a composition can arrive as if from nowhere,” Alice reflects. “But more often, it’s about coming back to the studio again and again, trying things out – sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Alice began by placing herself in the artist’s studio. “I sketched out a few ideas, then started recording the kinds of sounds you might expect to find in those spaces: brushstrokes, rain against the window, the scratch of a pencil, the flicker of a candle being lit.” From there, she introduced warm synths and soft, ambient piano. The resulting tracks are richly layered and textural, evoking the rustle of materials and the quiet rhythm of creative work – it is a soundscape that invites stillness and attention.

Hearing her sounds fill the space at Cavendish Square, echoing off the walls in old rooms with sonorous acoustics, was a proud moment for Alice. “I was thrilled when TOAST approached me, and it was amazing to hear the soundscape played among such beautiful artwork and design at 14 Cavendish.” In the spirit of lifelong learning, she hopes the soundscape will become a resource beyond the three-day event, existing as a trusted companion for focused study and creativity. “I hope it continues to transport listeners to inspiring spaces.”

Alice wears the Botanical Shadow Print Cotton Dress.

You can purchase Alice Boyd’s soundscape here.

Words by Bébhinn Campbell.

Photography by Aloha Bonser-Shaw at ZigZag Recording Studio, Woolwich.