Field Recordings
Sound is heard as it passes through air, bouncing and refracting through fields of invisible particles. Then it’s gone and there’s nothing left except for what has been perceived about it through our psyche by casual, semantic or reduced listening.
“The photographic (or cinematographic) image is not the unmediated ‘representation’ of a portion of reality, it is a presentation, a newly created or arranged portion of the reality of the cultural world.”
(Mckee, A. 1994)
Recording allows us to capture this imprint, and store it. However, what I’ve discovered is that you can’t freeze time with sound – you can't “hold” or “freeze” a single-frame like you would with a photo - as sound is flowing. It has to be a looped. This is where I developed the idea of “micro-sampling” segments of the recordings, for example with the waterfall dripping. I would loop a section of the recording, in micro-seconds, creating an almost 'synth-like' oscillator sound. I then mapped these new sounds to my MIDI-keyboard and played different notes and chords, just like I would have done with a piano, to add colour to the overall piece. I also layered modulations like resonators that manipulated the pitch.