Different Times by Abdullhrman Hassona and Rebecca Ainsworth is a new collaborative audio-visual artwork reflecting on ten years since the Different Trains performance at Edge Hill Station. Commissioned by Metal, the project began with the duo taking a shared journey together by train. It explores travel, memory and the architectures that shape how we move through the world.
The work takes its starting point from Steve Reich’s Different Trains (1988), a three-movement composition that incorporates recorded testimonies from people travelling by train in America and Europe during the Second World War.
In 2016, Metal staged the critically acclaimed Different Trains concert at Edge Hill Station with a film accompaniment from artist Bill Morrison, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra and in partnership with Liverpool Biennial, Southbank Centre and Sound Intermedia. This year, in 2026, we are working in partnership with the Liverpool Philharmonic and the Tung Auditorium to re-stage the concert and film.
Ten years later, Rebecca and Hassona return to the railway to ask what might be found by looking and listening again.
Hassona’s imagery focuses on the architectures of rail travel: stations, platforms, carriages and spaces of waiting. His work considers our relationship with these built environments, and how architecture quietly directs and choreographs our movement through them.
Rebecca uses field recording to create ambient sound worlds rooted in close listening. Something heard now might recall somewhere else, or another time. For Different Times, these sounds are layered with piano and accordion, allowing her own memories of travel, heritage and folk music to enter the work.
Different Times creates a layered experience of travelling: passing through landscapes, noticing others, remembering other journeys, waiting, arriving and moving onwards together.
You can watch the piece below or visit Edge Hill Station, L7 6ND on Monday 12 October – Friday 16 October from 11am – 5pm to watch it in person. The piece will be available to watch online until Friday 30 October.
With thanks to:
Audio mastering engineer – Anthony Morrow
Musicians – Bill Connor (Piano) & Sally Edmonson (Accordian)
Arts Council England, Culture Liverpool and Northern Rail
