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Re: New Soundscapes

Subject: Re: New Soundscapes
From: "Mark A Brennan"
Date: Tue Jan 10, 2012 2:08 am ((PST))
Alas Dan that is indeed the beauty of expression. Some pristine, some not. =
 The motor was an ice breaker 14km offshore, the gravel crunching the sound=
s of ice rubbing against the shoreline, the rest the quiet lives of the ins=
hore fisherman, working alone or in pairs- a way of life being lost. No car=
s though, can't stand them, or people or rumbling buildings or jets.

The train, well that one you had to be there to expierience as it came out =
of the mist around a bend at midnight far from the nearest town.

The rest are mostly pristine, it's not a business, if I make back the cost =
of one microphone in my lifetime I'll be lucky!

I guess you could say it's part nature part documentation, art and phonogra=
phy... My ideas of what we put out there have changed, the pristine, doesn'=
t exist the way it did, ask Bernie, Martyn or Gordon, Andrew or anyone else=
. Add up the years spent recording by everyone on the list- how many hours =
for that one hour of pristine?  editing out the motors which can be done wi=
th isotope .. For me though it mostly paints a picture that isn't real and =
gives a false sense of comfort to those who dont get out to listen, perhaps=
 a reflection on my mostly negative outlook on where we are going as a spec=
ies. But I have put out unedited albums of true pristine nature before.

I do find the sounds relaxing, but likely because I can put an image to the=
 moment,

Bad manners, no.. We just have a different idea of what story we want to te=
ll and that's ok - but the myth that everything is perfect in the sounscape=
 of nature is one I think we should be thinking about overcoming  as nature=
 recordists or at least trying to raise awareness.  Have a read of David Mi=
chaels piece on that. People are asleep at their desks these days and don't=
 really experience listening, perhaps he could post it.

Oh the gravel, that was the Atlantic churning rocks over and over with each=
 crashing wave. Not the ice. Sorry. Anyway .. I will add the word phonograp=
hy to the banner, pristine phonography!  I just found of feel that the reco=
rdings with motors are now a genuine
Best
Mb



Mark Brennan



On 2012-01-09, at 9:48 PM, Dan Dugan <> wrote:

> Mark Brennan, you wrote,
>
>> I forgot to mention, I should also add that the album does indeed have s=
ome
>> motors in it! For two reasons, firstly because I wanted to paint an audi=
o
>> picture of what things sound like today, that human noise is very appare=
nt
>> in the natural soundscape both in a good way but also as noise pollution=
.
>> So this is to raise awareness a little but also because I find some of t=
he
>> sounds interesting and I think they add to the composition if you look a=
t
>> it as a whole and purely sound for listening pleasure. If you click on t=
he
>> individual tracks you can read the story behind some of the recordings.
>
> Thanks for the gift, but forgive my bad manners for looking it in the mou=
th a little=E2=80=A6
>
> I heard motors in the seaside recording near the beginning. Then I heard =
gravel crunching, and didn't know whether it was a car passing or gravel in=
 the surf at first. Then there was a train in the night sequence.
>
> It used to be that we would stop and curse when human sounds intruded on =
our recordings. More often now we record through, because our media aren't =
so limited in length (as tape was), and, as you say, for accurate documenta=
tion of the soundscape conditions.
>
> I agree that the human sounds are interesting, but I fear they may cut th=
e audience for your production down to just a few phonographers. I turn in =
my raw footage to the parks where I record, for documentation. For artistic=
 works from the same material, I take out the human sounds with editing or =
filtering. When I listen to nature sounds I just want to hear nature, and I=
 think my taste is pretty typical.
>
> De gustibus non disputandum est, but perhaps you might consider that leav=
ing anthrophony in seems inconsistent with the subtitle of your web page, "=
Pristine, downloadable soundscapes of Eastern Canadian nature, for wellness=
, relaxation & personal listening."
>
> -Dan
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> "While a picture is worth a thousand words, a
> sound is worth a thousand pictures." R. Murray Schafer via Bernie Krause.
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>






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