Sound Seed Transmissions was a radio show I hosted as part of my residency at Nida Art Colony and was broadcast on the local radio station, Neringa FM: http://neringafm.lt/

The Sound Seed Transmissions show focused on sound and artists who work with unique and different contexts, drawing their inspiration from nature, natural materials, found objects, temporary installations and self-made instruments. The show was meant to be a type of “stories from the field”, presenting a mix of short interviews with artists and a selection of field recordings and/or compositions.

Below is the full archive, all 6 shows:

SST #1 – 16.11.2011 – Introductory show with Greek sound artist Yiorgis Sakellariou in dialogue with John Grzinich discussing their ideas and methods for field recording.

SST#1

—

SST #2 – 23.11.2011 – The second radio show was entitled the “Secret Life of Wires” where I presented my long term fascination with resonant wires as instruments and objects in the landscape and played a number of recordings over the years.

SST#2

—

SST #3 – 29.11.2011 – The third radio show we explored the idea of “Sonic Traces“, how physical processes not only leave marks but also reveal something in the sounds they make. The guest was visual artist Evelyn Müürsepp from Estonia. Evelyn and John talked about and played pieces from their collaborative sound and drawing project “Sonic Scratch Cycles”.

SST#3

—

SST #4 – 7.12.2011 – The fourth radio show explored the idea of “Instruments of Place“, or making sound through the construction and manipulation of objects, materials and devices and other creative means. The guest was Maksims Shentelevs from Latvia. Max and John talked about and played pieces from their self-made instruments and sonic investigations of places.

SST#4

—

SST #5 – 14.12.2011 – “The Sounds of Nida” was the title of the 5th show. My residency was coming to a close and this show reflected on my discoveries and experiences in Nida. Neringa FM host Linas Ramanauskas offered to interview me and we I played various recordings made during my residency.

SST#5

—

SST #6 – 21.12.2011 – The 6th and final SST show was a special solstice edition entitled, “myths as public dreams, dreams as private myths“. The guest was Andrius Rugys from Vilnius. Andrius and John shared their recordings and discussed experiences from the field working with attentive ears.

SST#6

This entry contains a variety of material documenting my two month residency at the Nida Art Colony on the western shore of Lithuania. The colony was opened in spring of this year as a branch of the Vilnius Academy of Art, which purchased the original building in the early 1990s, but invested recently in a completely reconstructed facility. The new building houses five residency studios for visiting artists and an array of guest rooms, kitchens and conference rooms to accommodate a variety of events, workshops and symposia.

For the focus of my residency I have proposed the following:

sound – subject / object – site

This two month residency concentrates on sound and the signification resulting from the merging of material objects, affects the elements and positioning within the landscape. By listening in to this process we expand the connections to our environment by taking the role of wanderers, seekers, collectors and instigators. Daily field excursions around the Curonian Split involves phonographic studies, short sound actions and temporary installations that become the basic frames by which to listen and document. The collected materials will be edited and composed into an audio/visual film along with an exhibit containing the physical objects. Collaborations were welcome to open this working format into a continual creative dialogue between objects, spaces and the local environment.

gallery of objects and interventions

several colleagues came for short visits to collaborate, namely Yiorgis Sakellariou, Evelyn Müürsepp, Max Shentalevs, and Andrius Rugys.

From December 2-4 I gave a sound workshop for students from VMU in Kaunas. Thanks to Tautvydas and the Colony for coordinating this. The b&w photos are from Eglou Baltrušaičių.

Excerpts of 2 sound exercises:
exercise – open narrative exercise – open narrative

exercise – word association exercise – word association

This video is meant for the workshop students to illustrate how different type of microphones sound

Click here to view the embedded video.

changing seaside and lagoon of the Curonian Split

surrounding landscapes of the Curonian Split

In addition to all of this, I produced six episodes of a weekly radio show entitled the “Sound Seed Transmissions” on the local radio station Neringa FM. You can listen to all the shows here.

One from the archives… Tower guide wires on a mountain top in central Portugal resonating in the wind. Recorded in 2008 with a pair of contact mics while in a residency at Binauralmedia in Nodar.

Residency: August 4 – 21, 2011

New Maps of Time is a project and workshop about mapping architectural structures and urban spaces using sound as a means to analyze and express actions within a space. This edition of the workshop focuses on the notion of personal narratives and the creation of ‘audible geographies’ through the process of exploring the sonic potential of Vienna. The workshop part is concentrated on collaborating with local guides who would show me around the town in an attempt to discover unique spaces, sonic effects and playable objects and structures. In return I share my interests in using sound to shape and form a different perspective through listening and developing simple site-specific activities and  interventions. Read the full project description…

Guides: For this edition I enjoyed working with guides for daily excursions around Vienna. The guides joined for however much time they had. Different guides joined for different days. The guides were friends or curious contacts who had an interest in walks, biking, wandering, psychogeography, urban exploration etc. Each guide showed some unique and interesting places in Vienna (parks, plazas, unique buildings or structures, abandoned or transitional spaces, rooftops, bridges, tunnels etc.). Excursions involved sound and/or video recording depending on what we found. Special thanks to the guides who took time to show me around: Tobias, Sari, Markus, Andrea, Rob, Elffriede, Uwe, Michael, Radmila,

Project timeline:

Thursday August 4th, 18:00 – Introduction and public presentation about New Maps of Time, Transforming Freedom Space in the MQ

Friday August 5th – Wednesday August 19th – field work with guides and collaborators, site-specific actions around Vienna

Saturday August 21st – presentation of workshop outcomes

click on the above image to listen to recordings made in Vienna

Residency hosted by Transforming Freedom and sponsored by X-OP

and below are two video documents edited from the material recorded in Vienna.

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘Vienna Sound Locations’ a sonic survey of various sites around the city, found while wandering and exploring.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video shows a sonic effect of a concrete overhang that reflects the sound of water in the Wienfluss canal below. The masking effect of the water can be heard in the first minute although not in the second.

June 11-12, 2011, Helsinki Finland

Organized by Äänen Lumo

Led by John Grzinich and Patrick McGinley

Temporal Soundings was a unique 2 day workshop and overnight retreat that took place at Galleria Oksasenkatu 11 and the surrounding urban area in central Helsinki. The focus of the workshop was on the temporal aspects of sound recording and site-specific sound activity combining found objects and spatial interventions. The program of the workshop revolved around working with and analyzing two contrasting times of day, midnight and mid-day. Using these two times as a frame, we looked at the natural soundscape, found materials and physical spaces as ‘sonic potential’ for human intervention. This involved a range of activities from passive listening exercises to more active explorations using improvisation and game play. The focus developed into working within an hour long session at opposite times of the day, midnight to 1 am and noon to 1 pm by 3 separate groups in different parts of the city. Several concise 5 minute field recordings were made by each group that explored both active and passive approaches to interventions within specific sites. Following these ‘magic hour’ sessions we listened back to the recordings to analyze the temporal aspects of the sounds, events and actions that were documented.

The following recordings are excerpts from recordings I made in collaboration with two of the participants, Kikka and Joel. The first half of each track was from the evening and the second was from the same location approximately 12 hours later. See what differences you notice while listening.

Passive field recording, small marina

Small intervention, tree and park sounds

Site-specific action, playing the Sibelius sculpture

Special thanks to the participants for their enthusiasm and energy and to Otso and Juuso for their exceptional organization.

Special thanks to Veljo Runnel for leading an excellent workshop on Nature Sound Recording, sharing his experiences from the last 10 years and extensive knowledge on bird species. The group spent one early morning and one full evening out in the field, analyzing and collecting sounds. We then listened to the recordings that were made an identified the animal species that were heard. Comparisons of different recording setups were helpful to in defining both aesthetic and scientific approaches to the sounds that were captured.

read the full summary of the workshop on the MoKS blog

listen to this mix of four recordings I made during the workshop

1. creaking tree and morning birds by the Ahja river
2. lone Tangmalm’s Owl (Karvasjalg kakk) in the forest
3. Spotted Crake (Täpikhuik)
4. Morning chorus near Ahunapalu with Cranes

During the week of April 11-17th, I spent the week in an area of Nuremberg known as Muggenhof, as part of a mini-Tuned City event. Our base was a building known as the Quelle, an extremely large facility that for many years, housed the distribution of goods from the Quelle catalog mail order company. The company has since closed so the building remains largely unused. We were very fortunate to have access to such a facility for the workshop.

The workshops focused on a wide variety of topics from recording techniques and microphone types to perception of sound and using architecture as an instrument. Because of the relatively low turnout of participants everyone worked together sharing knowledge and experiences.

The following recording was composed from a series of sound actions that intended to highlight the acoustic qualities of seven different spaces in the Quelle. For each recording the same set objects and structure of action was used. In this case 4 metal waste baskets found in the building were dragged evenly from corner to corner by 4 people.

Other aspects of the workshop included sound recording theory and practice overview led by Derek Holzer. This led to mapping and recording of sounds throughout the Muggenhof district by participants of the workshop. A ‘sound map’ was then made using the Radio Aporee Maps interface and presented at the end of the week. Click on the image below to see the map.

The scale of the Quelle building is impressive. One can spend hours wandering the 5 floors, much as I did. A survey of the Quelle spaces can be seen and heard in this video (please use headphones):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Special thanks to Carsten, Rene, Jurgen for helping organize this, the city of Nürnberg for support and especially to the participants of our workshops for their time and energy.

Report from the New Maps of Time sound workshop Torun Poland.

Click here to view the embedded video.

‘New Maps of Time’ is a project and workshop about mapping architectural structures and urban spaces using sound as a means to analyze and express actions within a space. This edition of the workshop focuses on the notion of personal narratives. Rather than work with a group read the full project description…

This workshop concentrated on collaborating with local guides who would show me around the town in an attempt to discover unique spaces, sonic effects and playable objects. In the end I worked with 5 guides who were very helpful and engaged in the process of exploring the city through sound.

click the map above to listen to the sounds on Radio Aporee Maps

This is an unedited binaural recording of the mechanical room controlling the ventilation system of the Center of Contemporary Art. We were allowed to access the space and I could do this short walk through the different ‘zones’ of the basement. Toward the end of the workshop we made a blindfolded ‘soundwalk’ through the building to get and idea of how the ventilation system adds to the sonic environment.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Workshop organized by Krzysztof Gutfrański, and hosted by the Center for Contemporary Art Torun, from April 4th-9th 2011. Special thanks to Krzysztof Gutfrański and the helpful people at CSW for arranging this workshop.

This is a short composition I produced for the Atlantic Waves festival double CD compilation distributed with subscriber copies of The Wire magazine. In November 2007 I was invited by SIRR records to perform in a label showcase at the ICA in London. Thanks to Paulo for finding a copy that I seem to have lost.

This piece uses mainly field recordings from South Estonia around lake Peipsi. The hissing sound is from underwater insects found along the shore in June.

midnight chorus, Ahja river in late June

Recorded shortly after midnight in late June 2010. Mostly birds can be heard here. In the tree to the right is a Nightingale and in the field to the left is a Corn Crake (crex crex). In the distance are a few Cuckoo birds and the deep sound far off is a Eurasian Bittern (Botaurus stellaris). I prefer the Estonian name for this which is simply Hüüp, like its call.

Baltic Sea thunderstorm

Rather stunning display of a thunderstorm out at sea right at sunset in late July 2010. This lasted for a couple hours until the storm finally hit land (just as we were going to sleep).

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.

workshop: 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.

click on the radio aporee maps image below to hear recordings from the workshop

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/