[STR 013] WLD 2014 – Dimension

Is sound in space or is sound the space? What is the dimension of sound when its nature obligatorily shapes time and fabricates the spatial illusion. Is there a sound that is not an echo? Acoustics is a game of resonance that makes spaces speak. The mass and the shape of the sound objects that constitute the big soundscape are directly influenced by the characteristics of any given space, not just the acoustic, but the mental; a territory created between what’s in the aether and what’s in the acoustic field. Auditory phenomena is a reconciliation of a constant dialog between the perceived object and the event happening in spaces, both resonating in one single point: the heart of a listener.

Photo by Luis F. Roncero.

Recordings:

  1. Cueva de Los Guacharos, by José Ricardo Delgado (Colombia) – Grabación realizada en una cueva donde vive una colonia de guacharos (aves ciegas nocturnas que se desplazan a través del sonido) al sur de Colombia en el Parque Nacional Natural Cueva de Los Guacharos.
  2. Wait, by Stephen Sharkey (UK) – The piece is called ‘Wait’ and was recorded in one take from the corner of the atrium of the Central rail station in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England. It is a recording comprised of signals from a stereo pair of small-diaphragm condensers and a stereo pair of contact microphones. Signals/tracks are clean with the exception of the effect of volume-level mapping applied in editing. The photograph, also titled ‘Wait’, is taken from the same position as the audio recording. Please feel free to use the image in the compilation’s artwork.
  3. Anthem, by Daniele Grasso (Torino, Italy) – A little bird seems to accompany the Italian anthem, played before a football match. The microphone is outside on a balcony on the fifth floor, inside the house is turned on the TV with the start of the football match of Italy. Outside you hear cars and a bird that does not identify the location. It is assumed that the bird is a blackbird Indian in a cage near, he heard the blackbird’s television host and sings the national anthem.
  4. Muezzin Call, by Luis F. Roncero (Spain)
  5. Coro de pájaros, niño solista y un auto (Bird chorus, sole boy and a car), by Gustavo Peña y Lillo (Monterrey, Mexico) – As interesting as leaving the city in search for a quiet place, as defined by Gordon Hempton (“no audible human noise intrusions of any kind for a minimum of 15 minutes”), is the process of discovering and joy of these mini quiet moments which exist ephemerally around us daily.
  6. Echo bridge, by Jane P. Perry (USA) – Echo Bridge is an acoustic poem composition in human voice, bottle, the Charles River, and birdsong recorded May 2014 at Echo Bridge on a ZOOM H2n. Composition included cutting, copying, pasting, and layering of the raw field recording with no alteration of the sound as recorded. Echo Bridge in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, USA, is identified in Trevor Cox’s The Sound Book. Built in the 1870’s over the Charles River, the refractive audio effect of this aqueduct gave the bridge its name. 
  7. Avenue de Tabora, by Jean-François Flamey (Belgium) – Recorded and edited in the city of Namur along the river “La Sambre” .
  8. Nighttime Mission Beach, by Jean-François Primeau (Canada) – Nighttime Mission Beach is a composition made of five different recordings captured on the night of May 23rd 2013 at Mission Beach, Queensland, Australia, at around 11:30 PM.  The first recording was made kneedeep in the water, the microphone only a few centimeters above the waves, which gave a great stereo image (headphones are recommended).  The following three recordings were made about 10-15 meters apart going back towards the treeline at the limit of the beach.  The final recording was made in the bordering forest, where we can hear the bugs’ and birds’ night chorus.  I have made simple crossfades betweens these takes in order to make the listener explore the different beach settings and their various shades.  Minimal EQing was applied to clean up the recordings.  It is interesting to note the abundant natural filtering occurring when the waves are building up, crashing and dying, as well as the higher frequencies that are lost as we move away from the ocean, only to be replaced by (or to make room for?) the singing of the insects and animals.
  9. Thunder between Port Mulgrave and Staithes, by Rob Mackay (North Yorkshire, UK) – My best thunder recording to date. Recorded between Port Mulgrave and Staithes, on the beach by some high cliffs. You can hear the storm getting closer and closer, until it got to the point that I had to make a run for it! This was recorded for the project ‘Resounding Mulgrave’ which is a sound and video installation produced with poet John Wedgwood Clarke for ‘Dictionary of Stone’. ‘Dictionary of Stone’ is a series of artistic interventions which reconnects the Rotunda Museum with its geological landscape curated by Lara Goodband for Scarborough Museums Trust. It is funded by Arts Council England through Grants for the Arts.
  10. Pre-match warm-up, by Paul Michael Browne (UK) – Raw field recording of a pre-match warm-up session before a game of Squash in the local league at a sports centre.
  11. Morning Song, by Petri Kuljuntausta (Finland) – Morning Song is a live performance with the exotic birds. Recorded live at Africasia house of Helsinki Zoo, Korkeasaari Island, Finland. The concert performance was part of the Grey Cube Festival.
  12. Tooting Broadway Tube Station, by Clive Henn (London, England) – Getting off the tube, up the escalator into the ticket hall.
  13. Stationshal Haarlem, by Robert van Riel (Netherlands) – This is a recording of the ambience in the central hall of the Haarlem railway station, it is recorded with a Sony PCM-D50, microphones in XY-position.
  14. Lucha libre en México, by Salvador Felix Troche (Mexico) – The recording was made with a Sony PCMD50 recorder with it built in mics on XY position. 
  15. Witch Lady of the Woods, by Robert Schwarz (Vienna, Austria) – The presence of humans is commonly unwanted during nature recordings. Sometimes it appears inimitably. Like some endangered species.
  16. Cities and Memory, by Stuart Fowkes (Oxford, UK) – A field recordist’s dream from the British Museum, an entire room dedicated to clocks and watches from across the ages, paid a visit at midday, just as all of the clocks are chiming twelve times. There’s so much going on in the recording here: ticking grandfather clocks, ancient bell chimes, a cuckoo clock and many more, and I think it gives a real sense of unique place mixed in with all the usual museum hubbub. There’s not only a sense of the time in the museum when the recording was taken, but of time passing through hundreds of years simultaneously, as grandfather clocks, ancient mechanical devices, digital watches and many other timepieces from around the world and throughout time all mark midday at the same point.
  17. Many Callers, by Zach Poff (USA) – This recording was made in a small forested area in the city of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The remarkable local cicadas stretch their voices to the upper limits of human hearing, accompanied later by the calls to prayer from several distant Mosques.

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