Soundscape Composition: Great Plains Tornado

Tornado Watch On The Plains (3:10) In this audiovisual presentation the composer explores his childhood and life in the midwest. Growing up in Illinois, warm spring/summer weather and tornado sirens frequently went hand-in-hand. What better soundscape to recreate?

Every "completed" sound in this is a conglomeration of numerous independent sound sources. The footsteps are a good example: they consist of a solid boom for the actual foot's landing, a crunchy gravel sound when the foot hits the ground, and the swishing of reeds and tall grass with each step taken, amongst many others. This project was mixed using Protools 6.

Soundscape Composition: Get It Away

Get It Away (2:46) Composer David Byrne stayed in A Room for London, a one-bedroom installation above the River Thames, from 17 - 19 February 2012. During this residency, he created this soundscape-based composition. He notes, "I brought along some field recording gear to use. I went out during the day and recorded sounds that I thought might be useful and evocative. It turned out that most of the sounds - even the church organ in Southwark Cathedral - seemed to converge around a common rhythm (London's tempo is 122.86 beats per minute). It's a bit too good to be true - that every large city should have its own rhythm, but here it is. I let the sounds dictate the groove, the tempo, and then I simply played along.

Sound sources:

Strawberry seller: Borough Market
Train: Southwark
Woman Evangelist: Spitalfields Market
Organ: Southwark Cathedral
Jackhammer: near Waterloo
Footsteps: mine, embankment
Thames waves: near Surrey water

Soundwalk: With Guy de Bievre and Alper Turkkan

Soundwalk: This walk was held as part of the Human Cities Brussels-Instanbul focus during Istanbul Design Week 2010 at the Old Galata Bridge in 2010. It was lead by musicians Guy de Bievre and Alper Turkkan. This international 2-day event included lectures, breakout sessions and workshops for architects, urban planners, sociologists, designers, artists and representatives of the civil society (associations and NGO’s involved in urban culture, creativity and intercultural dialogue) from Turkey and various European countries. Source: Vimeo

Soundscape: County Fair

County Fair (7:00) The soundscape of an American county fair is much the same across the country each summer. This is the Lane County fair in Eugene, Oregon. The video is divided into four segments (1) carnival rides, (2) animals (3) events and (4) return to carnival midway. There is an ambient sontage of children and adult voices, power generators, mechanical equipment, air conditioning, animals, music, and amplification systems. One soundmark heard above the acoustic array is the crowing of roosters in the animal section. Source: Vimeo

Soundscape: Outside Charles Ives Door

American composer Michael Gatonska  is producing a three part field recording of the soundscape outside the studio of Charles Ives (1874-1951).  Each soundscape was captured during a different time of day.

Gatonska's goal is to record examples of the soundscape that Ives would have heard while composing in his studio on a typical hot and muggy summer's day or evening. Ive's music was intimately linked to the landscape, history, philosophy and literature of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and he held the conviction that the whole world of sounds was open for experiment and use. 

The Charles Ives Acoustic, Part 1 (2:06) Morning

The Charles Ives Acoustic, Part 2 (2:59) Noon

The Charles Ives Acoustic, Part 3 (TBA) Evening  (not yet posted)

Source: You Tube

Project: Paisajes sonoros de Tuxtla Gutiérrez

Tuxtla Gutierrez (9:29) (Spanish)  The concept of soundscape is explored as a tool to document the "Intangible Cultural Heritage" of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. This video is made as part of the research process for a PhD thesis  in religious studies by Sheila X. Gutierrez Zenteno. Source: You Tube

Project: Soundscape Presentation

Soundscape (7:27) This video by David Macfarlane was exhibited as part of 'Noise' 24-26th November 2011 at the North Inch Community Campus, Perth. The piece investigated the varied sonic environments found around Perthshire, captured on location using a variety of microphone techniques, such as binaural and surround sound. The final show featured a range of three audiovisual exhibits which attendees could interact with. This presentation was displayed on a full-size wall projection in 4-channel (quadraphonic) sound, however has been bounced to stereo audio and lower resolution for You Tube. Given the various acoustic environments it is best to listen to this with headphones.  Click2Read background material related to the development of this exhibit. Source: You Tube

Lecture: Remote Sensing of the Soundscape at SERF

Remote Sensing (26:48) Queensland University of Technology Adjunct Professor Stuart Gage gives a presentation on environmental sensing research conducted at the University's Samford Ecological Research Facility (SERF). Professor Gage is a world leader in complex biological systems analysis and is currently developing metrics for assessing ecosystem health and predicting future pressures on natural resources. His recent research in environmental acoustics has led to new research activities in Australia. Source: You Tube.