New Book On Field Recording

The book "Field recording: l'usage sonore du monde en 100 albums" is a welcomed entry on the subject of field recording, covering its history, methods, practitioners, the analysis and consequences of their work. 

A few more or less obvious but irritating gaps are compensated by the wealth of the material actually presented. 

A must read for anyone interested in this area. The interviews alone justify getting the book. 

Alisa Weilerstein

Alisa Weilerstein was in town. I lack the words that can better describe the magic feeling that her playing produces in me.

Intercultural Identities

Here’s an article by one of my most inspiring teachers, Dr. Jan Walls, titled Intercultural Identities. 

Utopia made possible

If you decide to visit Portugal be sure to include the Schist Villages region in your itinerary. You’ll be doubly fortunate if you happen to be there during the X JAZZ festival. 

I visited the schist villages and caught X JAZZ this past week but then they say I was born with the silver spoon in my mouth. 

Evan Parker, the great British saxophone player, directed a one-week workshop for musicians and concerts took place in several villages around the region, as part of this year’s edition. A eulogy to art, ecology, entrepreneurship and social responsibility, proving that utopia is possible.

Ask for information about the next X JAZZ here and be sure to attend it.

If you can read Portuguese see a different version of this article here. Photos of the event here.

El Silvo

click here to watch documentary

Such an inspiring, learning and, I dare saying, moving experience. 

Check out El Silvo, a documentary on the Canary Islands whistling language.

Worth reading

Bernie Krause writes about The Sound of a Damaged Habitat in the NYT. “While a picture may be worth a thousand words, a soundscape is worth a thousand pictures.” 

Hearing is believing, I would say...

Who are the real criminals?

These days the expression arts funding is equivalent to severe cuts. Deep in their hearts many people believe that the arts are not really necessary, their role and impact on society is negligible and they are the least of our worries. Arts and artists are tolerable at most if they entertain you, while you are trying to get way from having to worry with more serious matters.

Things like crime, criminals and prisons for example, these are serious matters that deserve the society’s undivided attention.

Maybe, just maybe, if more programs like the Carnegie Hall outreach program were taken more seriously and carried out at a more opportune time, society would have less to worry and human kind could preserve better its future. Maybe if more serious arts programs for children were properly funded you would not have to spend as much money fighting crime and criminals...

Watch this CBS report titled "Sing Sing inmates perform, change their lives with music" and be a witness.

Really cool festival

The polar wind brought the Pat Metheny Unity Band to town. “Are you guys freezing out there?” asked Pat. “We are. This is really bad for our fingers but we’ll try to do our best.” And their best they did. 

Only this music could keep me from freezing to death...

A mixture of PMG, PM without G, an astounding Chris Potter, a quartet of trios, duets, Pikasso guitar solos and some spare parts of the Orchestrion thrown in for flavor. Every possible combination in a compact format, a never seen before flexibility in any PM formation. An incredible offer by these virtuoso musicians to the cooled audience of the Cool Jazz Festival. 

Next year I hope they set up an igloo and toss us in there. It’ll be a lot cozier I’m sure... 

“Léo-l’enfant-sourd”

An amazing book by Yves Lapalu “Léo, L’enfant sourd”. A different cartoon character, Léo, a deaf child, moves through a world of sounds. 

Quite moving.

World Listening Day 2012

An intimate and humble contribution to the WLD2012: listening to a documentary titled “A Day in Autumn with Dietrich Fischer-Diskau”. I could hardly breath. 

One voice, two ears. 

The whole purpose is discovering music through the musicians, not the musicians through music, he said...

Happy birthday Nelson Mandela. 

Happy birthday Murray. 

Happy WLD2012 everyone.

Sound Education

An interesting event taking place now in the UK.  Schools of sound for a sound education...

Click here for more information.

Hypermediacy Incorporated

Almost 20 years ago I coined the word hypermediacy to describe an hitherto barely noticeable tendency for the formation of a new language based on computer networking. In those days it was starting to be digitally negotiated (see here or here, for example.) 

Now it seems this is more than an emerging trend and it can even turn into a business. Read all about it here.

The powers of music: two articles

Two articles you do not want to miss. This one titled “Music And Health: 11 Ways Playing And Listening To Music Help Both Body And Mind” on the powers of music and this other “Did Humans Invent Music?” on the origins of this power. 

Enjoy.

Music from the heart

"Joy in the Congo: A musical miracle" is a CBS documentary about the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra created in the heart of "the poorest country in the world."
Nothing less than a miracle indeed. A documentary worth seeing and worth meditating upon.

 



 Music in the heart of the Congo 

The Sound of the Almost Inaudible

Here’s an experiment I would not have minded carrying myself. Sound hunter-gatherer Chris Watson tries to record the sound of a snail only to find out that snails behave in a slimy, underhand, deceptive way even in front of a BBC camera crew...

Listen

According to an interview published by the NYT, “At the age of 14, inspired by Gene Krupa, [Max Neuhaus], wanted to be the best drummer in the world.” When I was around that age I wanted to be just like Max Neuhaus. I was fascinated by his musical personality and later became inspired by his interest in the sounds of the environment. His ideas about the spatial quality of sound – a subject that continues to fascinate me – also drew my attention.

Long before I joined ranks with the group led by R. Murray Schafer – the group which started the new area of soundscape studies – it was people like Max Neuhaus that, without me even noticing it, quietly drove me into those sonic realities.

Speaking of Neuhaus, listen to this great 1960 interview...