Electric Echoes Sound Installation

This interactive sound installation and SoundWalk, by artist Maya Chowdhry, invites you to listen in, as a conflict between the River Goyt and the forces that shape it resonates through the vast network of tunnels hidden beneath Stockport’s streets.

‘Electric Echoes’ explores the often overlooked and one-sided relationship between the River Goyt, the former Stockport Power Station site, and the town. For over 250 years this river has been central to Stockport’s industrial growth. More recently, the river supplied the power station through an underground network of tunnels drawing water to cool the machinery that generated electricity feeding homes and industry. While this infrastructure brought power and prosperity to Stockport, it also placed heavy demands on the river.

Sucked into tunnels, flushed back out at high temperatures, banks encased in concrete - the needs of the river, and its ecosystem, have been abused and neglected. Through a sonic excavation of the underground remains of the power station and the life of the river, Maya invites us to listen with her as the river speaks back.

Drawing on ideas of decolonial cleaning - practices of care, repair and re-attunement - the sound installation and SoundWalk are a means to listen to the echoes of the power station and the voices of the river, including the lives it has sustained through eons. Doing so, Maya suggests, is the first step in reimagining how we might reattune to and care for the River Goyt.

Set within the underground spaces of Stockport Air Raid Shelter, the sound sculpture channels the electric pulse of the former power station. The currents form a score of an industrial past that has never properly been “cleaned up” and still reverberates today through the course of the river and the hidden underground tunnels that fed the power station.

Featuring six touch- activated copper trumpets, their stems shaped to represent the network of tunnels, each uncovers a chapter in the turbulent relationship between the power station and the River Goyt.

The sound installation Currents from the Power Station will be on display at Stockport’s Air Raid Shelters. Use the booking button to choose a time slot. Each session gives you an introduction to the artwork, plus 20 minutes to explore the installation.

Dates: 20 February - 22 March 2026

Times: Every 30 minutes on the following days:

• Tuesday to Friday: 1pm to 5pm
• Saturday: 10am to 5pm
• Sunday: 11am to 4pm

Cost: Free, but booking is essential! Click on the ticket link and book a slot today.

To find out more about the Electric Echoes SoundWalk (Part 2) and how to get involved, follow the link . You must install the Echoes app beforehand.
This project has been created in collaboration with Stockport community groups CultureBridge and Hong Kong Fellowship. Together, they took part in workshops including soundwalking, field recording and biodata sonification; transforming the elements around the town - light, water, earth and air - into sound. This process helped Maya develop the SoundWalk.

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