Recorded in the field by… | Various Artists
Gruen 033 | Audio CD > [Sold Out]
Field Recording Series 01
Reviews
01 Aaron Ximm / United States of America
„Three sides of the Avilas“
Recorded in Guantanamo, Cuba, 2004
a) the backyard soundscape of Jesus Avilla;
b) the sound of Jesus‘ brother-in-law trying to fix a broken radio with the meagre gear he has at his disposal;
c) the sound of Julio’s mother singing a lamenting song in her livingroom during a party.
02 Chris Watson / United Kindom
„by Kelso dunes“ (temperature 45 C)
Recorded in the Mojave Desert, USA, 2005
Published by Touch Music [MCPS]
03 Costa Gröhn / Germany
„königskoppel“
Recorded between Todesfelde and Seth, Germany, 2005
The track „Königskoppel“ was recorded on a field between two northern German villages on an evening in January 2005.
04 Costa Gröhn / Germany
„parkplatz“ (parking lot)
Recorded in Kassel, Germany, 2004
The recording „Parkplatz (parking lot)“ was produced after a concert in June 2004.
05 Dallas Simpson / United Kingdom
„The Valley of Crows“ (extract)
Recorded in Lambley Dumbles, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, 1999
Part of a long 1hr 10 minute study of this beautiful small wooded valley near the village of Lambley in Nottinghamshire (UK) at sunrise. For part of this recording I walked down the bed of the small stream running at the bottom of the valley, mastering trees and bushes fallen across the stream. The birds are actually rooks in a large rookery gathered in a tree canopy, but I preferred the name „crows“ in the title, which has a softer more pastoral feel.
06 Daniel Knef / Germany
„Gangway by Night“
Recorded in Koblenz at Deutsches Eck, Germany, 2005
„A gangway recorded at Deutsches Eck (Koblenz, Germany) in August, 2005 at night, nearly no water movement, moderate breeze. You listen to the first 90 seconds of a 5 minute field recording. For about 22 seconds the gangway produces long, nearly static sounds and after a short pause rhythmically stuttering sounds for 40 seconds.
07 Derek Holzer / United States of America
„Monte Alegre Lago at Dusk“
Recorded near the town of Monte Alegre (Pará), Brazil, 2003
I spent the month of August 2003 in Brazil, astounded by the sounds around me and deeply frustrated with the equipment I had brought along with me. This sunset canoe ride through a lagoon on the Amazon River, near the town of Monte Alegre (Pará), survived as one of the best recordings of that month. Now, listening back, it strikes me almost as some kind of microsonic, electroacoustic composition, and I am reminded of Xenakis‘ obsession with the mysterious patterns inside the movement of crowds, the falling of rain, and the communication of animals.
08 Gabi Schaffner / Germany
„Boiling Mud Pot“
Recorded in Myvatn, Iceland, 2002
About 4 to 5 thin poles, connected to each other by a weatherworn nylon string, mark the securitiy zone around the famous mud springs of Myvatn. I wrapped cotton balls around the microphones and threw them – just like a fisherman throws his hook – beyond the barrier, pressed the button and waited for the sounds to be caught.
09 Gabi Schaffner / Germany
„Candidate in a singing contest among Iceland’s youngsters“
Recorded in Reykjavik, Iceland, 2002
There was a huge crowd attending the singing contest. Old men and women coughed and wheezed into the microphone delivering enigmatic alliteration rhymes, much cheered by the audience. Countless children were led onto the podium to sing one or two verses taken from the vast stock of ancient Icelandic folklore. Feedbacks screeched and tormented the ears each time the technician tried to amplify the feeblest of those voices. But the audience was in a sparkling mood and everybody seemed to have a great time.
10 [sic] (Jen Morris) / Canada
„Niagara Falls“
Recorded in Niagara Falls, Canada, 2003
![[sic] (Jen Morris)](https://www.gruenrekorder.de/Photos/recorded_in_the_field_by/morris3.jpg "[sic] (Jen Morris)")
After having surreptitiously passed the tunnel that lies only meters behind the roaring Niagara falls in Canada, it did not take long until I got spotted by the unwelcoming hordes. Their screams responding like a Greek chorus against the echoing walls were fortuitously captured for posterity resulting in the recording that follows.
11 Lasse-Marc Riek / Germany
„Gefangene Fledermäuse“
(bats caught in a tube) Recorded between Preetz and Kiel, Germany, 2003
The recording was made in 2003 in a forest near Kiel (Germany) where waterbats were being caught with large net-traps. The bats were caught with finely woven nets, especially manufactured for that purpose, to determine their number, species and behavior patterns. After being gathered in a pvc pipe and analysed, the bats were released again.
12 Lasse-Marc Riek / Germany
„Küstenvögel in Dünen“
(coastal birds in dunes) Recorded on Isle of Amrum, Germany, 2004
This recording was made in 2004 in the dunes of Amrum. In a pond amidst the dunes there were innumerable territorial species of birds, among them various species of ducks.
13 Maksim Shentelev / Latvia
„Boudhnath stupa_prayer wheel“
Recorded in Katmandu, Nepal, 2004
Evening. A small room with candles and a prayer wheel on a side of the giant stupa. An old man inside is keeping candles light, he’s singing quietly. Time and again Mantis enters the room, turns the wheel, goes around the room and leaves through the same door turning the wheel once again. The bell is attached to the wheel. Since its dark outside candlelight is the only light in the room.
14 Maksim Shentelev / Latvia
„Insects in old tree“
Recorded in Mooste, Estonia, 2004
Piezo stereo recording of insects moving inside the sear tree (ambience outside the trunk is audiable as well).
15 Dronaement (Marcus Obst) / Germany
„Waterbeat“
Recorded in Crottendorf Heide, Germany, 2004
The locality was a small underground pipe about 2 meters below the ground you could enter through a manhole. A stereo-microphone was attached in the pipe close to the water. Unfortunately, I did not experience those rhythms again despite visiting the place several times.
16 triPhaze (Marek Brandt) / Germany
„Bienenhaus mit Helikopter“
(beehive with helicopter) Recorded in Leipzig, Germany, 2002 Recorded on a sunny day in a white house with hundreds of bees. A helicopter secured the American consulat nearby. (Leipzig, Germany)
17 Robert Curgenven / Australia
„a quiet night at home in the shed“
Recorded outside Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia, 2005 |
On the fringes of a town of 8.000, on the edge of Australia’s tropical north with the desert some 200kms south, the heat and humidity that goes with, living in a 12×9 metres shed means silence is something you never really hear. Crickets, cicadas, geckos, bats, passing cars and of course the wavering overtones from the ceiling fans keep the air alive in the „house“ as the outside comes in.
18 Roland Etzin / Germany
„on the bus“
Recorded in Füssen-Ost Allgäu, Germany, 2005
Sitting quietly among a crowd of talking heads.
19 Yannick Dauby / France
„Behind the Fuyang Community Forest“
Recorded in Taipei, Taiwan, 2005
Information about this phonography :
19 Tracks (77’59“)
CD (500 copies)
Credits:
Katrin Hoedemacker (translation support)
Tamy Harutoonian (translation support)
Tobias Schmitt (artwork – www.acrylnimbus.de)
Mit Unterstützung der Stadt Frankfurt am Main / Amt für Wissenschaft und Kunst
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2006 / Gruen 033 / LC 09488 / GEMA
01 Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard ::
RECORDED IN THE FIELD BY… (CD compilation by Gruenrekorder)
On ‚Recorded In The Field By…‘ there are nineteen tracks by well-known people such as Chris Watson and Yannick Dauby, to lesser known ones as Derek Holzer, Dronaement, [sic] to the majority of people I never heard of as Aaron Ximm, Dallas Simpson, Gabi Schaffner, Maksim Shentelev and people behind the label such as Lasse-Marc Riek and Costa Gröhn. Each of the pieces is described in the booklet, which is probably the nicest thing about it. It gives the listener the idea that it’s not just a random set of recordings, but actually a part of a bigger whole, cut out and made into a composition. Which is nice, since I believe all of these pieces have no electronic treatment afterwards. Besides the usual wind and water recordings, there is also a short piece of children singing or the tunnel sounds behind the Niagara Waterfalls. All in all quite a nice compilation.
02 Brainwashed | „Recorded in the Field by…“
Written by John Kealy
Friday, 16 June 2006
Field recording isn’t just pointing a microphone at your scene of choice and hitting record. There is a skill in capturing the atmosphere and life of the moment and allowing a listener to recreate the scene in their mind in vivid Technicolor. All of the artists featured on Recorded in the Field by… have this skill in spades.
The variety of recordings included on this album is a treat for the ears. The 19 vignettes document a wide array of environmental, natural and human situations. Of course there’s the token recording of crows too. I’m convinced to become an official field recording artist you have to make at least one recording of a murder of crows. Dallas Simpson’s „The Valley of the Crows“ is a better than expected variation on this theme. There’s only so much that can be done with crow calls but some recordings have more ambience than others and this is one such case. Far more interesting is „Küstenvögel in Dünen“ by Lasse -Marc Riek, a recording of many different species of coastal birds. It is a beautifully clear recording and evokes pleasant memories for me of going birdwatching on the beach.
Most of the recordings make great use of space. Some give the feeling of being right there in the middle of what is being recorded. The best piece is undoubtedly Dronaement’s „Waterbeat“ which is the sound of gurgling water in a pipe recorded very closely. It is claustrophobic but intensely pleasurable. On the other hand, „Niagara Falls“ by [sic] reduces the mammoth intensity of the mighty waterfall to a tinny rumble. It is a nice touch to reduce something so big and earthly to a sound so thin and otherworldly. As expected, Chris Watson’s contribution, „By Kelso Dunes,“ is a masterclass in creative recording. His is the only track without any notes accompanying it so I don’t know what exactly it is but it sounds hot and dusty.
The wealth of wonderful recordings on Recorded in the Field by… made me want to listen to the album dozens of times. I could spend hours getting lost in the individual tracks. A lot of traditional ideas such as the humming of bees are turned on their head or at the very least shaken up a little, in the case of the bees the sound of a helicopter in the distance acts as a comment to man’s engineering versus nature’s engineering. I find that the more straightforward a field recording is, the duller it is. Little twists like this adds a spark of excitement to the piece.
This is one of the most enjoyable and fascinating collections of field recordings I’ve heard in a while. There is no piece that approaches even the remotest outposts of boring. It’s rare to find a compilation of any type of music without a dud track but I feel that Recorded in the Field by… is a damn fine assembly of sounds.
samples:
* Chris Watson
* Lasse-Marc Riek
* Dronaement
03 Quietnoise | Tobias Bolt
Field Recordings, und um diese geht es dem in Frankfurt stationierten Gruenrekorder Label vornehmlich, sind Ausschnitte aus der Wirklichkeit, aus dem Kontext getrennte Realitätsfragmente. Diese können nun weiter ver- und bearbeitet werden oder, quasi unberührt, ohne weitere Verfremdung für sich alleine stehen – und so also als Sample im engeren bzw. Musikinstrument im weiteren Sinn verwendet und gehört werden. Auf dem Sampler »Recorded in the field by …« finden sich nun ausschließlich unbearbeitete Field Recordings, treffender vermutlich unter dem Begriff Phonographien subsumiert. Zu jeden Track gibt es Hintergrundinformationen zumindest im Bezug auf die Aufnahmelocation sowie fakultativ eine kurze erklärende Beschreibung zum Zustandekommen des Stücks. Die Zusammenstellung birgt dabei klassische Soundscapes, wie beispielsweise Chris Watsons Aufnahme aus der Mojave Wüste, alltägliches von Costa Gröhn, der sich in Deutschlands Provinz auf Hügel und Parkplätze setzt oder auch Soundwalks durch dichte Wälder und Kanufahrten am Amazonas. Ebenso ins abstrakte Detail wird gezoomt, ein fast schon klassisches Beispiel sind die Schlammpots in der Nähe des Myvatn-Sees in Island, aufgenommen von Gabi Schaffner, die auch einen sehr gelungenen Ausschnitt aus einem Singing Contest beisteuert – und bei mir die Frage aufwirft, ob Bootlegs eigentlich eine Subspezies von Field Recordings darstellen.
04 testcard | Martin Büsser
Field Recordings haben Einzug in zahlreiche Formen der zeitgenössischen Pop-Produktion gefunden, die konkreten Klänge werden dort jedoch meist nur als dekorative Beigabe eingeflochten. Selten jedoch belassen es Künstler dabei, ihre Field Recordings unbearbeitet zu veröffentlichen. Genau das war allerdings das Anliegen dieses Samplers, für den die einzelnen Teilnehmer (u.a. Chris Watson, Derek Holzer, Gabi Schaffner, Robert Curgenven und Yannick Dauby) Aufnahmen einreichen sollten, bei denen bereits die Feldaufnahme an sich klanglich überzeugt. Und das ist in vielen Fällen sogar gelungen, gleichgültig ob man das Ergebnis nun als Musik oder einfach nur als Geräuschkulisse bezeichnen mag. Wir hören unter anderem – sehr atmosphärisch – weit entfernte Kirchenglocken, eine klappernde Laufplanke am Deutschen Eck in Koblenz, ein isländisches Kind, die bei einem Gesangswettbewerb vorsingt, das monoton lärmende Geräusch der Niagara-Fälle, aufgenommen aus einem nahe gelegenen Tunnel und immer wieder: Insekten, Wasser- und Naturgeräusche. Manchmal kann es von Vorteil sein, wenn die Musik verstummt und andere Geräusche den Raum erfüllen. Ein ambitioniertes Projekt, das an keiner Stelle in Esoterik abdriftet.
05 EAR/Rational | Don Poe
This is a really diverse field recording disc – my favorite track was a recording of a gangway at night – some massively big metal booms – That held my interest and made me notice. Other tracks here are more of the ambience direction – night time recordings of lakes with bugs, frogs and so on. One track, the very first one, has a woman singing, obviously very happy, but odd to find on a field recording as I normally think of nature, but someone singing in their kitchen is just as valid! There is also a cute recording – very short! – of a kid at a public recital singing. Then, it goes straight into a recording near Niagra Falls that sounds like water hitting a large sheet of metal, or air escaping from a valve. As I said, very diverse!
06 www.void.gr/absurd | nicolas
[…] λ?γο πιο π?ρα η κοιλ?δα και η σπηλι?ς της καταβ?θρας. καθ?μαστε και φτι?χνουμε καφ?δες αναπολ?ντας τη β?λτα που πριν λ?γο ζ?σαμε.. πως ?μοιαζε στον καθ?να; μ?λλον συλλογ? εντυπ?σεων πρ?πει να κ?νουμε, χμ, ?σως κ?τι σα το recorded in the field by cd συλλογ? της γερμανικ?ς gruenrekorder (www.gruenrekorder.de) με ?χους απ? δι?φορα σημε?α του πλαν?τη μας ?πως τα β?ωσαν τ?ποι σαν τον aaron ximm, chris watson, dallas simpson, droaeement, yannick dauby, lasse – marc riek, κ.α. μοναδικ? και παν?μορφη, ?σως και ?νας καλ?ς οδηγ?ς για αρχ?ριους στο ε?δος ακ?μα. […]