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this edition of framework:afield has been produced in the united states by john f. barber. for more information see http://www.nouspace.net/john/. producer’s notes:
Dawn Birds, Light Traffic, Melodic Machines is a 58:00 sonic narrative collage composed of field recordings from different places—Dubai, Victoria, and Vancouver—at different times. This combination seeks to foreground, through either sonic similarity or serendipity, soundscapes that are representative of fluid time and place but solidly grounded in rich listening experiences.
There are many definitions for soundscapes. At the heart of each is the idea of “sounds that might be heard at a particular place.” This gives the field recordist and/or sound artist large latitude. Including creating collages of sounds heard in different places at different times.
Collage is at the heart of this work, Dawn Birds, Light Traffic, Melodic Machines, which uses field recordings made in Dubai, Victoria, and Vancouver.
Why collage? Consider the landscape painter and the field recordist. A landscape painter cannot capture all the details and nuances of any particular place. She creates a representation. Chooses which different details to include. And which to set aside. She creates collages, renderings, from witness and imagination.
The field recordist may also follow this approach to collage. Sounds recorded at one location, at one time, may connect, through either sonic similarity or serendipity, with sounds recorded at another location, at a different time. The results are soundscapes representative of fluid time and place but solidly grounded in rich listening experiences.
Both the landscape painter and the field recordist produce compositions interpreting, describing, and documenting a place, in time. As noted, collage may be at the heart of any artefacts created in this process. But there is also the sense of realism conveyed by either the painting or the soundscape. This realism evolves from the process of making and considering what is captured by the painter’s brush and/or the field recordist’s microphone.
Shifting focus solely to the field recordist, and specifically my practice, composing a soundscape is often a process of selecting, editing, and juxtaposing elements of different recordings to create a sense of a place. To promote a believable experience of being in that space. This sense of structure and reality comes from active aural engagement for both myself and those who listen to my works.
To establish and maintain that engagement, this work, Dawn Birds, Light Traffic, Melodic Machines, seeks to promote a representative soundscape. A constructed scenario that connects realistic sounds in new and exploratory ways. That asks listeners to pay attention to aural details of different, often divergent, acoustic environments. And find in their overlap and interplay connecting sound textures.
Soundscapes then not only provide ways of understanding places through their sounds, but prompt listeners to explore new ways of understanding those places through listening. Specifically, soundscapes like Dawn Birds, Light Traffic, Melodic Machines offer two opportunities for listeners. First, such soundscapes foreground the aural world. They push one to listen to and contemplate the sounds that might be heard. Second, soundscapes can help listeners engage with unique features and affordances of the sonic environment. To cultivate ways of hearing places.
john f. barber, 2022.03