Three Essays - Field Recordings, Sound, Music

Three articles on music and sound art made from field recordings. Each article deals with the relationship of composer/creator and recorded environment in different ways, but a number of theoretical questions of interest to us arise across all three writings -- for example, what is the boundary between sound and noise, or music and sound? How does the interchange between real/sensed experience and imagined/created experience unfold across these works? How are these artists transforming perceptual experiences and practices into works of sound and art? Are the transformations conscious (intentional) or merely a by-product of the recording process?

Will Montgomery's analysis of six contemporary artists (Chris Watson, Peter Cusack, Kiyoshi Mizutani, Toshiya Tsunoda, Jacob Kirkegaard, and Stephen Vitiello) offers an excellent survey of some compelling recent works by these artists, framed in a discussion that attempts to locate the practice of field recording in relation to both art and nature.

Montgomery: Beyond Soundscape

Francisco Lopez writes about his own work (La Selva: Sound Environments from a Neotropical Rain Forest), adressing questions of real vs. imagined, authenticity, the notion of the sound object, and his concept of a 'blind' listening.

Lopez: Environmental Sound Matter

In my own essay, on Annea Lockwood and Frances White, I analyze two pieces about rivers. I propose the notion that these works are 'made from listening' and I strive to reveal what takes place in the space between the creators' initial experiences of listening and their finished works.

Nagai: Listen Compose Listen