Uniformbooks, ISBN-13: 978-0956855961, 240 pages, 2013, English

The boom in the production of field recording releases has generated a lot of attention in its, history, significance and the divergent approaches employed by artists, musicians and scientists. The discussion has produced quite a number of new abstractions and definitions, to the point where field recording is being considered as “audio readymade”, or “aural photography” or even “naturally generative artifacts”. As you would imagine this seminal collection of interviews gives voice to some of the most acknowledged protagonists in the field, who discuss a constellation of techniques and opinions. The two authors are respected field recorders themselves, so the dialogues that unroll in every chapter add elements piece by piece and explore a number of key issues. One is the essential process of “listening” in order to dissect or relate elements of the recordings. Another engages with the question of the “objectivity” of field recordings. This is a quite slippery territory as getting rid of subjective manipulation at any level is quite an abstraction, but the answers are coherently composed from diverse and extensive experience. The book finally looks at the importance of the level of detail in recordings and the conceptual and contextual implications that arise. The quality of information the and opinions “recorded” in this book expose readers to the danger of having their future experience of listening to field recordings radically altered.

 

Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) – A soundwalk by Angus Carlyle