Travel Sound

I have been off travelling around Indonesia and Thailand for the past two months. I splashed out and bought some FANTASTIC new microphones for the trip and now have memory card after memory card stacked full of sound recordings. None of these were recorded with particular projects in mind, instead i preferred to just listen and see what i could find.

I heard some amazing examples of nature, from frog trumpet choruses, to electronic birds, to gibbons that sounded like muffled children singing in closets, to the hustle and bustle of China Town in Bangkok and thunder storms on Thai Islands.

all are coming soon ....

Exploring Field Recording, on the radio.

Im working with three other artists interested in sonic interventions, acoustic architecture and urban sounds of control, each creating an individual one hour radio broadcasts with 'Framework: Afield', a collaborative project with South HIll Park and Framework Radio, all to be aired later this year on Resonance FM.

Martin at South Hill Park kicked things off with some interviews of our initial ideas. Check out his Gene Pool Podcast on the making of our sonic explorations;

http://www.digitalmediacentre.org/wp/?p=1533

MEMORY SOUNDSCAPES

MEMORY SOUNDSCAPES from my travels to Thailand and Indonesia.

(not recorded due to battery failure, my own reaction failure, 'not a good time' syndrome, or for some reason just didn't think to record it)

• Muzak, Indonesian style.

When travelling on a night bus you will experience very loud 'happy hardcore' music played being blared down on the travellers through speakers along the length of the bus. There is no getting away from this music, it is on every bus, all night, nice and loud. Each bus seems to have the same cd too. The locals don't bat an eyelid about this auditory assault.

• The transition from quiet jungle life to a busy river port.

After three days of being on a klotok river boat and in the jungle listening out for birds and orangutans we emerged into a busy river port in an extremely wide stretch of the river, the sounds of cranes, machinery and electronic bird call filled our ears. The sounds were so metallic and sharp and dispersed in this wide space in total opposition to the acoustic dynamics we had just left.

• Chainsaws in the jungle

I might have a bad recording of this, but thats not ok. This was actually a small cricket sized insect that makes an electrical sound almost like a chainsaw. When they get going it really sounds as if your in the mids of deforestation.

• Sonic advertising.

'You, miss, come here, yes!' 'transpoooort' 'hello, yes, yes, have a seat' it was non stop, in your face, sonic advertising at its best. The one time i tried to record it in a particularly active spot and they barely said anything to us, typical.

more to come ...