This is a great hydrophone recording I made last week in the local Mooste lake. The sun was shining brightly so the plants were giving off plenty of oxygen. There are also a number of sqeaks and buzzes I cannot yet identify. The hydrophone is made by the avid field recordist Jez riley French who spent a few weeks in the MoKS residency. I can reccomend these hydrophones for those who want to try out under water recordings and are on a budget (yes, this is a small but honest advertisement for Jez’s product which he sells to help fund concet events he organizes).

hydrophone recording of Mooste lake #2: download link

Extended greetings and creativity to all in the coming year. I passed the turning tide with a great group of old and new friends, in and out of doors. This recording was made on the first of a three day NoYears event held at MoKS. While drifting into the empty oil tanks in Mooste, Maksims Shentelevs played a jew’s harp while I bowed a long metal saw. Special thanks to Mr Holzer for the use of his Core Sound modded DPA mini mics.

harp, saw, ice (6:10): download link

Last week I gave a sound workshop which was part of a summer theater camp for youth in Mooste. The camp was held for the first time so there was plenty to be learned especially when trying to collaborate with the other workshops (drama, art, film). For the sound workshop we concentrated on the ideas of “soundscape” and understanding how humans navigate with stereo perception of sound. Then I did a number of group sound exercises on listening, playing and synchronization using everyday objects (bottle caps, tin cans, paper tubes etc). Towards the end I took on a group of 5 to work on some “advanced” skills with basic recording methods, acoustic sound properties and improvisation with various objects. I should thank all the great young people for their attention and in particular Madle, Silver, Doris, Triin and Regina for their time and energy in the more focused exercises at the end.

Below is a short excerpt from one of the improvisation exercises made with my final group (I had them try 5, 10, and 15 minute improvisations to understand the effect of time duration).

youth sound workshop – group improvisation: mp3 file