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Fields of Gold Part 1

  Tobias

Tocafi: Marcus, what are field recordings?
Marcus: The term ”field recordings” is used to describe recordings of environmental sounds, sounds of nature or recordings of regional indigenous music (mostly of peoples whose music has not yet been discovered). Recordings are mostly realised using portable MiniDisc Recorders or DAT-Recorders.

Field Recordings are often integrated into experimental music as a “musical” element or as an additional sound source. A great deal of artists, however, works exclusively with the unedited sound, mostly for documentation.

Tocafi: So, if I went into the garden and recorded the dog barking, that would qualify as a field recording?
Marcus: Hehe that’s a good question, which I have pondered upon as well. Basically, I’d regard the recording of your barking dog as a field recording. Still, i would like to ask, why the recording was made and how it is presented after it has been made. Is its purpose merely to document something, such as a picture or the first words of your baby? Will it be processed or integrated into a different context? Does the dog’s barking have a strange or unusual characteristic? I think it really depends on the the way these factors manifest themselves. Let’s take the example of the l’appareil project “window standpoint series” (http://www.lappareil.com/window/). If I listen to the recordings of the individual contestants, without knowing where and when they were made, then I’d have to admit that things in Russia, America, Japan or anywhere apparently sound just like from my onw window. In that case, it would not be that attractive to listen to those contributions (unless one of them were striking in one way or the other). These recordings only start making sense to me, if I can see an accompanying photograph and possibly know where it was taken. In that case, my imagination is stimulated and that’s what things are about for me.

Tocafi: A field recording can therefore not be seperated from the context from which it resulted? Or to put it differently: If I told you that my dog’s name was Gomez and that he was trying to tear my favourite shirt to shreds while being recorded, that would make the field recording more interesting?
Marcus: I can only answer that with “it depends”, because I am of the opinion that this is something each listener will have to decide for himself. I can only make up my mind what I myself consider to be art, music or field recordings. If your T-shirt were a band shirt, say from Metallica, and you were to mix the growling and barking of your dog with the track “And justice for all” from the 1988-released album by the same title, I would find that pretty exciting (You might think about playing the music backwards to the snarling in order to give it a diabolic touch). But I really couldn’t tell you if that is still field music.

By tocafi and Marcus Obst

Homepage: Field Muzick