Helena Gough – With What Remains

Writing about music is like dancing to architecture, Elvis Costello once stated. In this sense, the effort of this blog is in a way pointless. Helena Gough writes on her homepage: “Sometimes I hope to offer a moment in which someone might sense that things do not [...]

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Hanna Hartman – Ailanthus

Every second of this short running CD is abundant with meticulously hand-graded sounds and precisely measured pauses that demands highly concentrated listening and rewards with ear-opening revelations of sonic correspondences between contrasting sound elements. The opening piece “Att fälla grova träd är förknippat med risker” (in english: to fell trees is attended with risks) imposes [...]

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Eric La Casa – Air.Ratio

Everybody knows the constant whisper of air vents in hotel bathrooms or in restrooms of public places, a permanent sonic background to many modern buildings. The network of mechanized ventilation imposes a sound continuum on modern architecture that  provides an image of the rationalization of our interiour living conditions. Eric La Casa collects 30 recordings [...]

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Jacob Kierkegaard – 4 Rooms

4 rooms was recorded in abandoned places in Chernobyl, former meeting points for people who had to leave immediately after the nuclear catastrophy. Kirkegaard utilizes a setting that was already put into action by Alvin Lucier in his historic piece „I`m Sitting In A Room“: a recording is played back repeatedly into the space it [...]

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Chris Watson – Weather Report

Chris Watson is one of the world’s leading sound recordists of wildlife and natural soundscapes. He once played in bands such like Cabaret Voltaire or Hafler Trio but is more well know today for his collaboration with David Attenborough on his famous nature documentaries. From the decades of location recording around the world his expertise [...]

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Francisco Lopez – Wind

The completion of Francisco Lopez‘ tryptich of american environmental recordings moulded into compositions of formal strictness and reduction. The first of the three – La Selva – featured sound recordings of the costa rican jungle, the second – buildings – consisted of noises of airconditioning and ventilating systems as well as other machinery found in [...]

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BJNilsen – The Short Night

When it comes to processed field recordings, this is one of my favourite albums. BJ Nilsen used various location recordings from such places like Iceland, Sweden, England and Italy and mingled them through a set of old worn out tape machines and analogue equipment. Surprisingly the drony sounds unfolding out of nature backgrounds resemble the [...]

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Marc Namblard – Chants of frozen Lakes

Marc Namblard made a beautiful recording of a frozen lake in January 2006. The 56 min. running time follows the temperature change when the first sunlight comes out and the ice sheet starts working under increasing pressure. From my own experience I know that it is unforgetable and awe-striking to feel the cracks flash through [...]

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