The time of the white nights is quickly passing. In this part of the year I try to make regular excursions out into the countryside to record during the late evening and early morning solitude. One of my favorite places to visit is an embankment on the western shore of Peipsi lake (bordering with Russia). If the air is still enough, the subtly changing colors of the sky reflect beautifully off the surface of the water. The photos above are just a humble tribute to this magical display of light. On this particular night, it was so quiet, there was almost nothing to record sound-wise except for the occasional fish leaping up to catch insects. Below are two excepts from longer recordings made in the past month.

This first recording was made by a small pond in the forest. There are frogs moving around directly in front of the mics, but you can hear many soft sounds in the distance from the forest and a remote farm.

This recording was made after the traditional mid-summer day (St. Johns day or Jaanipäev), when the evening soundscape shifts dramatically from bird life up in the trees to cricket and grasshopper life in the grassy open fields. Unfortunately there are mosquitoes present nearly all the time and they seem to like the furry wind covers on my microphones.

Sonic Surveys of Tallinn

exploring, mapping and field recording of urban soundscapes

 

SOUND WORKSHOP
May 18-22, 2010
5 days, 12-15 people

led by: John Grzinich, Derek Holzer, Patrick McGinley
workshop module conducted in the frame of Tuned City, Tallinn 2011 Culture Capital

free and open to the public
questions and registration to: info[ät]maaheli.ee

This interdisciplinary workshop (of artists, architects, anthropologists, geographers) concentrates on exploring working methods for mapping and documenting urban spaces and architectural structures of the city of Tallinn. The methods used will combine research and practical skills in surveying and recording the “sonic geographies” found throughout the city. As Tallinn has radically different zones, both architecturally and socially  our research aims to reflect expose and reflect the variety of soundscapes to be found there.

This would include the practical elements of an overall “field recording” and “listening” workshop with an introduction to sound, soundscape and field recording techniques. The structure of the workshop divides the overall group of participants into several small scouting teams (3 groups of 4 or 5 people) that make excursions to different districts of the city. A range of locations could include the Soviet ‘plattenbau’ districts like Lasnamäe and Õismäe, the park areas of Kadriorg and Nõmme and the seaside districts of Pirita and Kopli (or whatever else can be introduced) for example.

Mapping the possible overlays of sonic regions or even specific sounds will help define potential “sonic landmarks”, as one of the main themes for the Tuned City event to be held in July of 2011. Afterward we can pool the coordinates and recordings into a “map” or Survey of Acoustic Geography of Tallinn.

satellite view on radio aporee maps

Program:

Tuesday 18.5
Introductory session: soundscape listening, sonic geographies, survey methodologies

Wednesday 19.5 – Friday 21.5
Survey sessions: field work with location scouting and sonic surveys of Tallinn city districts (parks, neighborhoods, buildings, abandoned spaces etc.), 3 groups

Saturday 22.5
working session: preparation of the Sonic Survey Map of Tallinn, assembling documents from the survey sessions (recordings, photos, videos, sketches, notes).

Saturday 29.5
presentation/exhibition at Tuned City public event, project introduction of “Tuned City – Sonic Landmarks Tallinn 2011″

About the workshop leaders:

John Grzinich (1970) has been conducting various forms of sound research for over 15 years, including field recording, kinetic sculptures, electro-acoustic composition, performance, group workshops and exercises in listening. Currently he lives in Estonia and works as a program and media lab coordinator for MoKS, a non-profit artist-run center in south Estonia.

Derek Holzer (1972) is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and extreme music. He has played live experimental sound, as well as taught workshops in Pure Data and electronics, across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.Holzer is currently a fellow at the KHM (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln) in Cologne. http://macumbista.net/

Patrick McGinley (1974) is an american born sound and performance artist who has lived and worked in europe since 1996. from 1996 until 1998 he lived in paris, where he studied theatre, and began his sound experiments in the context of those studies. he has composed works for several theatre performances, including the works of his own company, as well as performing live soundworks for others. in 2002 he co-founded framework an organisation that produces a weekly radio show on london’s resonance 104.4fm. his work concentrates on the framing of sounds from our environment which normally pass through our ears unnoticed and unremarked, but which out of context become unrecognisable, alien and extraordinary. http://www.murmerings.com/

About Tuned City:

Tuned City is a platform which proposes an examination of the relations between architecture and sound. This ongoing project draws the traditions of critical discussion about urban space within architecture and urban planning discourse – as well as its strategies and working methods – into the context of sound art. This expanded discussion reinforces the potential of the spatial and communicative properties of sound as a tool and means of urban practice. Tuned City continues as a platform, exploring other cities and locations with their own cultural and social settings, working theoretically and practically on the question how sound and architecture are related.
http://www.tunedcity.net/

Here are several field recording made during a recent visit to Portugal. These recordings were made in several different spaces throughout the Convent of the Order of Christ, inside well preserved castle of the Knights Templar. When the castle opens at 9:00 there are few people in the off season. For the sake of discreetness I used the internal mics of the Sony PCM-D50.

Small chapel off the first cloister (sounds of cleaning women)

Convent small chapel

Main cloister (water fountain and bird sounds)

Convent main cloister

Third cloister (with circling sparrows)

Convent cloister with sparrows

It was a busy week in Berlin but one of the nice surprises was a visit to Teufelsberg, a former NSA ‘listening station’ that has been abandoned since the wall came down. This small complex of buildings sits on top of an artificial mountain of rubble left over from the second world war. A group of us went to listen to something else, the space itself. Actually there were multiple spaces that included some old concrete military buildings and a series of geodesic domes, which I imagine, must have housed the surveillance equipment. The highest dome, sits at least 7 stories up, has a fiberglass shell that offers many sonic possibilities with its unique acoustic properties. The video below is composed of a few clips I filmed (in very windy conditions) while the sound is excerpted from a straight recording of a 40 minute improvisation of 5 people. Special thanks to Natalia for suggesting this and for Dusan to drive us out there in the snow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

just a short report on the workshop at CTM which went very well considering the various weather conditions in Berlin this week. Udo Noll the creator and developer of Radio Aporee Maps has revived the possibility of integrating a GPS locating function that works with the main website. A small application loaded onto a GPS enabled mobile phone can track your movement when enabled. Your path is then recorded and when played back, is synchronized with the existing sounds on Radio Aporee Maps. The different data layers (sounds, GPS track) are then mixed to create something of a fictional “sound walk”. While the recorded paths may stay the same the mix of sounds will continually change as new sounds are added to the map. To hear some examples, visit the Radio Aporee Maps Mobile page. Click on any of the files with ‘ctm workshop’ in the title and see some paths. Also, a number of new sounds were added during the week, particularly around Alexanderplatz, Rathauspassage and Klosterstrasse by myself and other workshop participants.

From January 23rd to 29th I gave a workshop for Art Pedagogy students in Kiel. The theme was based around ‘sound installation’ yet we went through many of the basics of the behavior and properties of sound as well as perception and social aspects of sound. I want to thank Pipe Lange for organizing this and Hannah, Annika, Nadine, Yasmin, Charlotte and Ramona for their participation. (photos by Lange and Grzinich)

highway bridge in Kiel near the university

Highway bridge knocks from traffic: bridge sound kiel mp3

Kiel harbor on a winter day

Kiel harbor sounds, ice, waves, ferry, planes, birds: Kiel harbor sounds mp3

Formica aquilonia or Red Wood Ant is a species of ant commonly found in the area where I live. The ant colonies are easily recognizable by the large mounds that they build out of debris from the pine forests they inhabit. The mounds also tend to be clustered together. I’m not sure what is the relation between the mounds, but the activity between them can be so frequent that “ant highways” or noticeable paths form on the forest floor. Ants are in the Family Formicidae meaning they give off formic acid when defending a territory through biting or spraying. Formic acid happens to be highly corrosive to some piezo transducer materials. This I know because one of the contact mics I used to record the ants was unprotected and went bad after about 15 seconds after I placed it on a mound.

The recording method here is something of an intervention and is not scientific in any way. If anything it is quite a provocation for the ants as I place the mics on the surface of the mound. They take it as a foreign object (which it is) and attack it. So the sound is a combination of biting, scratching and walking on the contact mics. To add some variation I used two different kinds of piezos and attached some thin brass wire to the discs. I do my very best not to harm the ants or their mounds especially since they are under a mild form of environmental protection due to threats from pollution.

contact microphone intervention with formica aqulonia – red wood ants (3:26) mp3 file

and here is a video I made about these ants:

Click here to view the embedded video.

jgrzinich – time’s arrow landing

maaheli editions 02, web release (1998/2009)

Tracks:

1. ignition (10:42) 10:42, 21.1mb mp3
2. cooling the legions (17:00) 17:00, 32.8mb mp3
3. what is written in the clouds (12:35) 12:35, 24.6mb mp3
4. hollow drain (12:27)  12:27, 24.3mb mp3

Download the full album ( 100mb zip archive )

time’s arrow landing is something of a “lost” solo project I recently dug out from my archives. Prepared originally for release on a CD label in Europe, it was completed and mastered in early 1998, before being dropped by the label. The full album is being presented here as it has rested since that time. Nothing has been changed except for some minor level adjustments and the omission of one digital error that occurred on the DAT master.

Each track is an investigation into the juxtaposition of dense acoustic noise fields and clusters of electronic pulses and tones. The electronic sounds were produced by an old military sine wave generator and were layered and processed with numerous effects pedals and signal processors. The field recordings were made at various locations around Austin, TX and were mostly left unprocessed. The equipment used was mostly rented or borrowed from friends, particularly Michael Northam.

maaheli editions is a platform for releasing personal or collaborative experimental productions of maaheli studio. These releases are not subject to any medium, schedule or plan.

During a recent revenant sound workshop in Tampere, Finland we took some time out to introduce a few basic recording techniques used in the field (it is good to remind ourselves that “field recording” is more a technique than a genre). This was to show what kind of things we do in practice to the participants who seemed more than curious to know. So we went out just to explore the territory and do some sound hunting for one hour. It didn’t take long to make some discoveries as well as understand the ambient noise levels due to traffic. I’m posting these recordings for the benefit of Michael and Jenni, the two participants who I went with on this excursion and to show what what kind of sounds can be found by randomly walking around.

short binaural recording in a nearby park: download link

contact microphones on a metal roof (melting snow): download link

metal sign picking up traffic sounds and radio interference: download link

magic metal railing on the side of the road: download link

For now I decided to focus on the Sony PCM-D50 and what kind of recorder you get “out of the box”. I don’t have a new Edirol HR-09 to test and I wouldn’t recommend getting the old model. The Sony unit feels sturdy and seems well made, even more so than my old Sony minidisc machine that lasted 8 years (and still somewhat works). My dream is to have a modern electronic device that lasts more than 10 years. Is that so much to ask? I don’t think so since the first recordings I ever made (in the late 80′s) were on a reel-to-reel tape recorder that my father bought in the early 1960′s and still worked fine. Anyway, I went out today to make some “field recording” tests, particularly in quiet conditions. As you can see from the photos, everything is covered in snow, which heavily dampens nearly all sound reflections (I love this effect). On the first recording I’ll highlight the general capability of the built-in mics, which is that they are very sensitive and pick up distant sounds fairly well. For all these recordings the mics were placed in the 120 degree ‘open’ position.

General ambient sounds in the village with some close sounds coming from dripping drains (I even boosted the levels a bit):
dripping water drains with ambient sounds

The last two recordings reveal some problems. One big problem is that with really quiet sound sources you can’t hold the recorder without getting some form of body noise. Even when I put it on a tripod I had to be careful not to move at all otherwise it would pick up vibrations. Also some self-noise from the mics starts to appear. Ambient recording near frozen lake:
ambient recording near frozen lake

Even more problematic though, for recording is wind. While this is normal, one would think that the (totally over priced) wind screen would help. It could be that, the mics are so sensitive, any wind will affect them. That’s understandable to a certain extent, but the “wind” in this case was a light breeze, something you would expect on any normal day. The wind screen didn’t seem to help much. I turned on the low cut and limiter switches, but the recording is still seriously affected by the mics totally blowing out:
ambient recording near frozen lake in a light breeze

The solution of course is to use external microphones. No problem really except that you might want to occasionally take advantage of having built-in mics for certain spontaneous situations. The dilema here is if you can really depend on them if it’s not a perfect wind-less day.