Sound Fields: Adventures in contemporary field recording

[@andrewallenpainter1616]

This is awesome because it clearly shows how sound design moved from salvage anthropology to artistic expression and creativity. There is no going back...

[@arniec6817]

I make all my own sound for my films. It's so fun and satisfying to create new and original sounds. For years, I had no idea that I was a sound designer and field recordist. It was just what we had to do to finish the movies.

[@rnomberg]

Nice! You were like Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain... ;)

[@MeAlexSenna]

Oh. I often think is just me doing all these recordings around the city and wherever I go. I feel pleased to see other engaging in this kind of quiet mantra of recording spaces and nuances of the everyday. Great video.

[@RandallFountain]

Same feelings!!!

[@odysseychl4925]

@Jaxen Benicio yes, nobody gives a damn

[@countenanceclear1191]

So inspiring...!! Thanks for this beautiful film!

[@RobbieMaynardCreates]

Third time watching this. Its absolutely perfect.

[@matijamikovic5756]

I like how the field recordings present in the video have music accompanying it relevant to the vibe of the recording.

[@arrolate]

8:47 Why does it seem like he's rapping on that beat? Sounds awesome

[@murataluclu]

amazing and excellent doc.

[@derrenleepoole]

This was most excellent. I will be watching again :)

[@NihilQuest]

Very cool. I'm glad I'm already a sound recordist, otherwise I'd be very jealous and getting ready to buy some gear.

[@nichttuntun3364]

keep up the interesting work. I record myself sometimes on a very basic level. there are so many mega-creative VST-tools out there right now to mangle those recordings in endless seeming ways. times never have been better for making experiental music. keep up the interesting work. its a never ending process - joy to you.

[@lcuxi]

Yeah, really mindblowing tools but nobody ever asks _why_ should we use those tools and to do what. Why do people want to capture and control and modify sound? Are they not capable of just listening to the sounds as they are, in their ineffable coming into being? Why would you want to capture a sound, why would you want to capture a butterfly? The sound must vanish. The butterfly must fly. We want everything to be repeatable and usable. I say no. We have to understand that sounds happen and that's it.

[@nichttuntun3364]

@@lcuxi The Butterfly not only must fly but vanish too one day. I have come a long way in life to not ask any Why-questions any more (if possible). I am just realising that things are what they are and can´t be held by us. I realized that the very core of everything - without exception - is constant change itself. And so I´m just doing things and enjoy this doing. It´s not the finished track, why I do it. It´s the process of doing it, I enjoy. All the sounds as they come and go. I like mixing a lot for altering sound and designing new things out of recorded tracks, although I basically don´t like the idea of canning a finished end-product. A canned "finished" track is somehow dead, no change. Completely artificial, always exactely the same. No process any more, except for whats going on in the listeners mind. If he/she listens to it, the perception still is a variabel dimension, as mind is coming into game.

[@lcuxi]

@@nichttuntun3364 I really appreciate your answer. I am walking on a similar path myself. I've started from philosophy, from asking questions in order to _understand_ . But now I know that there is nothing to understand - to comprehend. It takes a long way, as you say. Now I just _listen_ - and not only to sounds. Right now I find myself recording sounds and exploring their possibilities, either by manipulating them or creating them from sinewaves. But sometimes I feel like I am not really listening anymore. I feel I'm just playing _with_ sound. I feel that what I'm actually listening to are my ideas and conceptions, that now assume the shape of a hearable sound. I hear, but I don't listen. So I'm asking: how can I listen? How can I forget about myself and just be-there, at the origin of sound? How can I stop asking and just be open? I asked you «why», in the previous message, not because I want to understand, but really because I do not want: i just would like to bring myself to really listening. Trying to live without purposes: this is the last inevitable purpose. By the way this has brought me, for the moment, into the realm of aleatoric music. Are you familiar with it?

[@nichttuntun3364]

@@lcuxi I understand what you mean. The heaviest of all barriers between pure perception of things are we selves. Too loose our selves can be achieved by getting completely deep involved into something and just do it without a slight of an idea, a plan or a concept. The easiest way in music is to just play an instrument until there is nothing else. It's becoming a meditation than. Anyway I highly recommend to practice meditation, that will make it easier when you reach a certain level. But be aware you shouldn't have a level or goal in mind. Just practice meditation and become an observer. You will be able to transport that distance towards your habits in approaching sound. What is basically nothing more than sonic waves and sonic waves are all your ears can receive. The rest is made up by your mind. If you become an observer, you'll actually hear the pure sonic wave. You made me curious for that aleatoric music, what is that?

[@lcuxi]

@@nichttuntun3364 I completely agree that in order to really listen to sounds (and to everything else also, because listening has not to do with ears, but it is an overall attitude), you basically assume a meditation posture. And this is why I spoke about aleatoric music, as especially, I was referring to John Cage. He began his musical studies with Schönberg, but then he realized that so much control over musical structure, melody, harmony, intervals etc. (all this was very predominant in the avant-garde music of the 20th century) had made impossible to listen to the sounds as such. He realized that music hadn't to deal with sound anymore, but with ideas. Music had become (or has always been) a question of ruling over the sounds and telling the musicians what to do of them. But then, when hearing such music, you find yourself trying to understand ideas, the relations within the sounds, and not listening anymore. Cage instead loved the sounds--all of them, especially the non-musical ones. So he began composing music in which sound could be just itself, with no restriction, with no more relation to ego, will, power, taste. To achieve this, he invented several ways of composing music based on chance, above all using the I-King book of changes. His music became aleatory, both in composition and in execution: the composer places certain sounds in time brackets following the throw of coins, or of a dice, and then the musicians are free to choose where, within that time interval, they may play the sound and how. All ambient noises, mistakes, all sounds were accepted. By doing so, you assure that the listener cannot anticipate what's going to happen, so he is forced to just open him/herself to all the sounds. Cages music cannot be memorized, because it isn't fixed. You are constantly exposed to its unpredictability--and this is just like life. Art is no more different from life. Music is no more music. The happening, the spring of each sound in random combination with others (and with everything that is not sound), this is the important thing for Cage. Relinquishment. John Cage, as you might already tell, was very much influenced by Zen Buddhism. He had learnt some of it by Zen master D. T. Suzuki. But I've written too much. Go check out some of his music (especially after the 50s), and I suggest also his interview, and his writings! I think that you will be delighted.

[@AndrewHeathArts]

Fantastic piece... many thanks for this!

[@zootook3422]

Amazing!

[@brittonwalker7341]

A truly lovely film.

[@allanstelmach]

Really enjoyed this short film, fascinating variety of approaches

[@AgustinDavidF]

So a beautiful documentary!

[@biggrime]

Awesome video. Field recording is a very fruitful sound souce

[@celiaayneto9232]

fantastic film! well done, thanks ;)

[@johnrobinson5672]

Great film.

[@Amar-rp7nf]

beautiful

[@AaronjMcKnight]

Does anyone know what contact mic system Lawrence English is tying to the tree in this film? (1:40)

[@RAFAELLO077]

i'd also would love to know

[@matijamikovic5756]

ANy ideas how one could get the sound at 6.00? I'd imagine pitch envelopes on a synth but just to clarify - is there any field recording present in that sound?

[@peamarte]

Simple: Telephone Coils Pickups for recording electromagnetic fields. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKOnpXWNZqusgNE

[@EmvyBeats]

Elektrosluch 1, 2 or 3 is the way!

[@RAFAELLO077]

great video, thank you!

[@fotoralf]

Very well done indeed. OTOH it makes me a little sad. I've made loads of field recordings, mostly in industrial settings, but I lack the talent to turn them into anything artistic.

[@kexollikwauhtlinxan5654]

I’d just want to let my playful self give it a try if I where you mate… don’t listen to… just drink it ;)

[@JulianmNichols]

captivating

[@tinotaylor]

Does anyone know what song this is from 6:53

[@juergenbranz]

super awesome. thank you!!

[@m34nb34n]

love this so much

[@nostalgia_junkie]

don't have my headphones, my attention was drawn to the visual. very strong shots.

[@Scarface_iii]

4:09 dose anyone what frequency those r ? Like how do u describe tht sound too someone

[@Justin_or]

I would say rubbing your fingers on a fine-tooth comb the more you go down the comb and thicker the bristles become the lower the frequency but overall its sounds similar to the sound you are talking about

[@Ungruma]

This is beautiful! Saludos desde Argentina.

[@janiebarker2687]

Beautifulll 💓

[@MadameHusseim]

What kind of recorder is she using at 7:10 ?

[@jonas.gruska]

LOM Elektrosluch 3

[@MadameHusseim]

Jonáš Gruska Thanks!!!

[@ironcourt]

nice one!

[@bryce7540]

does anyone have any recommendations for some field recording albums? I don't know much about the scene.

[@ColinTedford]

Two electronic/abstract/ambient albums that incorporate field recordings: Common Pond by Russ Young and A Mere Fraction by Darren McClure (both available on Bandcamp). Two pure field recording albums: Brokenhearted Dragonflies by Tucker Martine (unusual sounding insects in Southeast Asia) and Sounds Of The Sea And Ships by [Peter Hanford, but no artist listed on the cover] (British maritime sounds from the 1950s/1960s, released back then on Argo, more recently on Trunk Records).

[@Leo-mu8kn]

Peter cusack - sounds from dangerous places Chris watson - el tren fantasma Also check the netlabel impulsive habitat

[@richbeechannel]

Earth Aural radio streams this kind of stuff

[@NihilNovi]

Glad to see some likewise minded people doing the same things I do. :-)

[@B6composer]

where is chris watson?

[@ronaldo.araujo]

She talks about Pierre Schaeffer and who else? I can't understand

[@ricardcasalsalexandri7593]

Hugh Davies - www.wikiwand.com/en/Hugh_Davies_(composer)

[@theuktoday4233]

I'm getting better at stealth recording... it's addictive

[@leemski]

Yeap. Great.

[@myfaveyoutube]

to the bastards who stole my Zoom H5N you set me back years

[@myfaveyoutube]

Phone is always with me though, so I'm recording :)

[@aquaisnotades]

Welcome to Level 6

[@Audiojunkk]

5:22 holy shit! Try doing that in the uk the police would be on you in seconds thinking ure one of the boom-boom boys!

[@sandeepsalvi2451]

We were on field recording, we were on road midnight, so after a while, 2 policemen came and caught us and said what are doing is this a bomb we had to explain to them that this is a microphone.

[@RepublicAllegiance]

baddass

[@mannibimmel09]

To destroy your wishful imagination towards fieldrecording please watch "Death Of A Soundman". Its foley...but same same.

[@crodrig]

Watched and 👍 thanks

[@mygg15]

Unbearable. Chaotic. Horror sounds in the background of the narration, why?

[@DudulleMaster]

c'est quoi ce reportage de daube ?