Soundscape Composition: Sounds of Africa

Each of these two videos is a montage of images and nature sound woven together into an Animal Planet TV Program promotion for Africa Month. Created by David Bez. 

Sounds of Africa 1 (1:00) 

Sounds of Africa 2 (1:00) 

Sources: YouTube

Soundscape Installation: Times Square Sound Sculpture

Sound Sculpture (1:46)  Even in the cacophony of staccato noise that defines Times Square, one sound seems particularly intriguing. Depending on one's ear it is either a continuous oooom-like mantra, a moan, a reverberating bell or an organlike drone. 

It can be heard if you stand on or near the grating over a subway ventilation shaft on the pedestrian island where Broadway and Seventh Avenue intersect south of 46th Street. You can even detect it sometimes aboard the Queens-bound R, N and W trains before they lumber into the West 49th Street subway station. But no tourist map or sign identifies it.

That is the whole point.

"I wanted a work that wouldn't need indoctrination," says Max Neuhaus, the artist who created the work, which he calls a sound sculpture. "The whole idea is that people discover it for themselves. They can't explain it. They take possession of it as their own discovery. They couldn't do that if it were labeled 'An Artwork by Max Neuhaus.'  Full article.

Source: New York Times Video

Documentary: Listening to Northern Lights

Listening to Northern Lights (7:45)  When solar flares hit the Earth's magnetic field, the skies at both poles can light up with auroras. The particles also create very low frequency electromagnetic waves, a type of natural radio that can be picked up around the globe. Every year sound recordist Steve McGreevy heads north where the reception is best and points his receiver at the sky. This was made for use in the Minnesota Planetarium and Space Discovery Center dome, thus the circular frame of the images). Produced by Joel Halvorson NASA Earth-Sun Museum Alliance (ESMA)

Phonographer: Knud Viktor

Le Sculpteur de son (8:51) Knud Viktor (1924 Copenhagen) is known as a pioneer of phonography and sound ecology. Formerly a painter but also a photographer and a film maker, Viktor wanted to picture the landscape by capturing the impact of the intense light and sounds upon animals. He spent most of his life trying to capture the tiny sound of animals and the sound of erosion on the rocks of Régalon (Lubéron, France) where he was living at the time of this interview.  Source: YouTube

Knud Viktor, Le Chantre Du Luberon  (12:00) Have you ever heard the sound of a worm in a fruit, that of a guinea pig in the womb?  Knud Viktor did. Perceiving the imperceptible, he recorded thousands of sounds, mixing, and processing them for seventeen years, to achieve a "sound painting" of the blue mountain of Luberon.  Originally a painter, printmaker, photographer, he explains why he turned to the world of sound. He explains how by making short films on crickets that little by little, "the sound took over him." He speaks of his early recordings. Source: ina.fr

Language: French only

Noise Issues: Moscow

Muscovites angry over noise pollution (4:02) In a city of 10 million people Moscow is dealing with pollution in a whole new way. Prime Time takes a look at an environmental issue that is changing the way we live, sometimes without realizing it.

Source: RT Moscow


See video list for other Noise Issue topics.

Documentary: Michael Colley Hang Performer

Michael Colley: Yue Diao PANArt Hang. (6:19)  Many artists interact with the soundscape which helps give form and definition to their work. Michael Colley performs and discusses his search for acoustic spaces that enhance the sound of this unique percussion instrument. A film by Darren Teale.

Source: YouTube

Lecture: Hildegard Westerkamp, "What's in a soundwalk?"

"What's in a soundwalk?" (33:36) In this presentation, Hildegard Westerkamp, uses recorded interviews, audio mixes, and live readings, to explore the evolution of soundwalks put on by the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective. She traces how the continuity of soundwalk activities over time may have shifted and deepened participant experiences in listening and relationships to space and place. This presentation was part of "Session 5 Soundwalks, Acoustic Spaces and Field Recordings" Sonic Acts XIII, 2010, Amsterdam.

Soundscape Composition: Duluth Harbor Serenade

Duluth Harbor Serenade (8:36) by Philip Blackburn. Duluth, Minnesota is on the shores of Lake Superior. The area is rich in signature sounds and sonic landmarks as is evidenced in the salutes between the lift bridge and boats, the trains, and the various bells around Duluth. Blackburn has taken this ambient soundscape and composed it into this 8 minute performance piece that was part of a  2011 Labor Day Weekend festival. The project was supported by an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, with funds from the Legacy Amendment. More at: www.philipblackburn.com

Source: YouTube