Tuesday 1 April 2008

recording diary - March

this month has been far too full of writing applications and planning this years 'seeds & bridges' concert series, hence I haven't done much recording.


. i've finally started work on the 'audible silence' release, which features recordings of engraved glass (windows, bowls etc). Both the title of this disc & indeed the name of the label I run 'engraved glass' come about via my long standing liking of the work by poet & glass engraver, Laurence Whistler. Hopefully this 3inch cd will be released in the summer after I record further some of his windows in Cambridge & Oxford.

. A drive in early March led to two local nature reserves & I tested out a new Hi-Md minidisc recorder. To be honest though the main thing that came from this session was it reminded me just how little space there is in the UK. Both these reserves are simply flooded with road noise. That adds another dimension of course, but it makes one long for the wide open spaces of the dales & moors (& even there it can be hard to escape the sound of traffic).

. Food ! I really enjoy cooking (well, most of the time that is) & decided mid-stir to record a particulary audible batch of yellow polenta. A clip of this recording is posted above.


. In preparation for some works for trio & quartet later in the year, I also attempted some more fence wire recordings out at Faxfleet, close to the river humber. There's a nice stretch of long wires running alongside a small pond here & the location means that there are few passing dog walkers to add thier own sounds ! + a rather nice metal fence post on the drive to the old farm house there (which I have recorded a fair bit & was looking forward to doing so again until I found that it is being 'redeveloped' !).

two horse-themed trips were foiled: one to record a point-to-point meeting that I abandoned when I saw that they were charging £30 to see it (!) - bloody liberty, in these here parts 'point-to-point' used to mean a fairly casual & free country pursuit. The other trip went ahead but I forgot my microphones !

No comments: