Somewhere in the spectrum between Musique Concrete and Phonography, is a vast gray area that is disowned and disputed by either side. This compilation treats this no-man’s land as its playground.
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Field recordings they are, with some processing, but not just walls of rhythmic noise. Sounds of nature, sounds of the city, using the non-instrumental rhythms and melodies of the source recording as the focal points, coaxing the music and beauty out of unplanned, un-orchestrated events. This 2-CD compilation was curated by Fred Yarm.
Curatorâs Statement
The idea behind this compilation was to challenge phonographers and musicians to find a middle ground between their two crafts by sculpting field recordings into creative compositions without using traditional instrumentation (unless captured in the field). The terms passive to describe the phonographerâs process of capturing sound and active to describe the composerâs process were used; however, this sparked a great debate over how passive the phonographerâs craft is. In reality, phonography can be quite active in the choices of location and timing of the recordings, the placement and movement of the microphones, etc. However, in relative terms, the phonographerâs product is rarely as ordered as a musicianâs composition and a composerâs product utilizes sounds that are generated for his or her specific purpose. This compilation allotted the artists the opportunity to find a middle ground in the realm of musique concrete.
The results that I received were astounding. The tracks represent everything from highly composed tracks telling stories or capturing the essence of far away locales to straight field recordings that the artist felt did not need any processing to demonstrate the beauty of the situation. Cracking ice on a lake, cicada songs, rusty gates, dripping water, moving trains, and a handful of other captured sounds provided the instrumental palettes for these compositions. Many thanks are to be given to the artists who accepted this challenge to coax such delightful music and beauty out of unplanned and un-orchestrated events. Their work far exceeded my expectations on many levels. In addition, I would like to thank C.P. McDill of Webbed Hand Records for his encouragement to initiate this compilation and for his efforts to see Far Afield into fruition.
Tracklist (Including URLs and contact info; this is a double-CD release):
First Disk
- A01. Quiet American – Khulna Station (for Andrew Raffo Dewar)
http://www.quietamerican.org - A02. Erick Gallun – Open Field Decay
http://people.bu.edu/gallun - A03. Lyndsey Cockwell – DWP
http://www.lyndseycockwell.com - A04. Don Bosco – Watching
http://uk.geocities.com/dinnerdiscs - A05. Doug Haire – The Hand Off
http://doughaire.com - A06. John Hanes – Tuscan Gate
http://www.purelovepower.com - A07. o.m.s. – n.m.a – format2002edit04m
http://www.omsnma.be - A08. Carlo Giordani – Valle Rossa
http://www.johnroach.net/simultaneous/giordani_cv.html - A09. John Roach – The Two Shades
http://www.johnroach.net - A10. Christopher Fleeger – Painting
http://www.acousmatic.com - A11. Direwires – Dayslumber via the Train
http://www.direwires.com - A12. devslashnull – Von Roll Grate System Test: 1984
http://www.commtom.com - A13. Raphael Lyon – Virginia Beach
http://www.freematterfortheblind.com - A14. Scott Smallwood – Basement Well
http://music.princeton.edu/~skot - A15. The Outsider – Aurora Storm
xtheoutsiderx@hotmail.com - A16. Angus Carlyle – The Sea Swells Again
klf_book@yahoo.co.uk
Second Disk
- B01. Carlos Santos – Crossing Point
http://www.granular.fm/–/a/carlossantos.php - B02. Pete Stollery – Banchory Ears
http://www.petestollery.com - B03. Giuseppe Rapisarda – Dalla Finestra
http://www.rapisarda.org/ - B04. HarS – SportNational
http://soundblog.net/ - B05. Uveaele – Lava dâOr
http://www.freewebs.com/plumbandplumber - B06. Aaron Lewis – Long Pond 2/1 10am
agileajl@gmail.com - B07. Steve Bradley – SO2 Emission
http://art-radio.net - B08. Robert Horton – Insect Trust
http://www.hoalrecords.com - B09. Eric Bollman – 14th Street
http://www.ericbollman.com - B10. Davide Morelli – Foto.01
http://www.davidemorelli.it - B11. Thanos Chrysakis – Afar…Sounds Begin to Ooze
http://www.stasisfield.com/artists/chrysakis.html - B12. Martiensgohome – White Chapel Moose
http://www.constantvzw.com/mgh/ - B13. Ambrose Pottie – Chainwash 16
ambrosepottie@sympatico.ca - B14. Seht – Death in Strip-mall
http://www.dorkinglabs.com/seht.php - B15. Archive – Imprint
http://www.juniorbirdman.com/archive - B16. Fred Yarm – Downspout Gamelon
http://www2.ennui.net/~yarm
About the curator: Fred Yarm is a Boston-area experimental DJ, phonographer, theremin player, and sound artist. His discography and other information can be found on his website: http://www2.ennui.net/~yarm/
Visit the download page to stream or download this album.
Wow, this is really a great compilation.
As a bird fan, I really like like especially track number 16 :-) Thank you!