wildeye Iceland field trip

june 2013

Chris Watson (tutor)

Jez riley French (tutor / trip leader)

tate modern....

i'm pleased to announce that my commission for Tate Modern will be available for listening at The Tate Modern from June 22nd for 2+ months & available to experience on saturdays, sundays + thursdays & fridays during school holidays.


audible silence: the tate, sleeping and waking

jez riley french


buildings sing....their walls, their floors, chairs and tables are full of sound, of their own music, made by vibrations, made even by the world turning. these pieces feature only untreated sounds directly recorded with special microphones and listening devices in the tate building itself.

'for this set of 3 new pieces Jez spent several nights alone in the Tate Modern building, listening for hours, capturing moments when the surfaces of the structure resonated or the sounds normally beyond our range of hearing offered up particularly evocative, unscripted compositions'

a few new events added to the diary of what i'm up to in the coming months:

forthcoming:

june 7th: invited speaker, sounding space symposium, Chelsea college of Art and Design, London

june 13th-20th: field recording workshop with Chris Watson and Jez riley French, Iceland

22nd june - 20th august 2013: audible silence: the tate, sleeping and waking' - headphone piece exploring the hidden sounds of the Tate modern building, Tate modern, London

July 11th-14th: workshop, Alghero, Sardinia

July 15th-20th: jez riley french and pheobe riley law @ Stazione Topolo festival, Italy

september 6-8th: field recording workshop with jez riley french & chris watson, norfolk, uk - places available

october 4-13th: installation (room tones / littorals), Spazioersetti galleria, Udine, Italy

october 11th: resonant terrain walk, castletown, portland as part of the b-side symposium

november 23rd-24th: a quiet position: south hill park - 2 day field recording workshop

november 25th: individual tutorials + listening group presentation, Oxford Brookes Uni, Oxford

december 6-8th: field recording workshop with jez riley french and chris watson, norfolk, uk - places available

sigur rós - kveikur (live on jimmy fallon) from sigur rós on Vimeo.

Sigur Ros are currently on their world tour & using JrF c-series contact mics - here's a video their percussionist sent me showing / hearing them in use during their appearance on a US tv-show.

now available for free / donate download:

a quiet position - wired lab

this collection of pieces stems from a workshop delivered at the Wired Lab by Jez riley French in September 2012. Those who attended (+ a few other artists with connections to the site) were invited to submit tracks representing discoveries made. 

In addition, Jez created one of his ‘scores for listening’ for the Wired Lab and this is reproduced in the pdf artwork.

Chris Watson kindly also submitted a track capturing aspects of ‘rolling stock’, one of the projects that Sarah Last & Dave Burraston of The Wired Lab curate away from the main Wired Lab site.

a new piece by Jez riley French is now available on Touch Radio 

http://www.touchradio.org.uk/

it features recordings made on a trip to Australia in 2012 for a residency at The Wired Lab, though these particular recordings are from the Blue Mountains region.

bower floor | dawn chorus with rain | canyon wires

music sits above and under the first impression.
when duration allows these things come into focus, increasingly.
in swifter moments a sense of quietude is possible.
still, finding pace with listening as a lens, moving

new release: 

egcd043

movere (estonia)  |  jez riley french

a residency at Moks in rural Estonia during spring 2009 came at a time where my thoughts about improvising with field recordings and methods of composition where in flux. they always are of course, but it’s fair to say that during 2009 my work was moving in a series of different directions.

. the simplicity and clarity of placing unprocessed single recordings within durational frames 

. the continuing power of hidden sonic elements to create their own compositions 

. the energy of textural intuitive playing . the quietude of audible silence

 . the stillness of movement contained with photography, for scores and more

some recordings, like those in my ‘instamatic’ series, are immediate and work as documents of listening. others take time and drift in and out of ones view. it is some of these later recordings that form the basis of this new release. they have taken time to appear, time to ‘fit’ and time to be fully formed.

motet: from the latin movere, ("to move"), describing the movement of different voices against one another

movere (estonia) begins a new series of works, centered around the word ‘movere’, that focus on ways that field recordings, including those of in-situ responses, act as choral musics - voices of places, objects and actions working with and against one another towards a, still intuitive, compositional line.

movere (estonia) is released on february 11th as a limited edition taiyo yudon professional cd-r, mounted on A5 recycled card.

extract from a longer interview by Sabine Verdely:

SV: I read your words about this release and new series of works and I hear in the pieces that they are not as subtle, in a normal meaning of the word, as I expected. There is more density and impact. Can you talk about this ?

JrF: yes, I understand what you mean. I'm working on some more 'movere' works that are very subtle - a step closer to quietude than, say, the 'audible silence' pieces. However the pieces on this release are a kind of cleansing, a way to say that something from the time of their origin was started and has a kind of trailing light that is still visible in the present.

SV: Is it music of a kind that you don't perform now ?

JrF: hmmm, well, live I always perform intuitively so its impossible really to say what is going to happen. I think though that some of the grain in these pieces, especially the third motet which is the earliest, represents an approach to intuitive composition that I was questioning and, in some ways, I have other questions now. 

SV: I think I am not alone when saying that I think of your work as always being quiet. I am not talking about volume with this. This release is more like the cd you made with Hankil Ryu, yes ?

JrF: well, both that cd (birdcage wallpaper) and the pieces on this one are quite close in terms of when they were recorded or begun, so yes, i'm sure there are some connections, though on the cd with Hankil I am actually playing very quiet sounds.

SV: I know when you are playing concerts you have used the salt a lot for a long time and also paper, but here you make with them a different type of sounds. 

JrF: yes, I think I agree with that. Oddly, I was in rural Estonia and it was very quiet and secluded there. It was unusual for louder sounds or approaches to appear when I was recording. On the second motet though there is a very quiet sound, of fingers, which whilst quite loud volume wise, is actually a very subtle sound. I had the microphones very close to my fingers and so this is perhaps one place where its possible to hear quietness even in something close to the ears so to speak.

SV: I am thinking a lot when I am listening to this cd. I find that some parts are a surprise to me. Did you aim for this ?

JrF: no, not at all. I simply make the music that I like or that seems to arrive. I left these particular recordings alone for a long time. I didn't even have them waiting for a possible release. In fact I was working on another set of pieces and then I decided to listen again to the work from Estonia and I found that the first and third motet now felt 'right' for a release. The second motet was not complete - its actually two recordings and for a long time I didn't know how to connect them. I often find that things find their place in ways that simply just arrive. 

Jez riley French - 'instamatic: czech republic'

eg042

6 pieces, recorded during 2 different trips to the czech republic, featuring conventional and contact microphones & listening glasses.

available as a digital download only - free or donate if you would like to contribute - profits will go towards future releases by other artists. thanks.

all engraved glass and . point engraved digital download releases have been re-priced to £4.99 (for standard releases) or free / donate (for archive and a quiet position releases). This decision comes as a result of extensive research and seeking the opinions of folks worldwide - thanks for the input ! all profits go towards future releases....

http://engravedglass.bandcamp.com/

new book, published february 2013 - includes conversations with Conversations with myself, Manuela Barile, Angus Carlyle, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Viv Corringham, Peter Cusack, Steven Feld, Felicity Ford, Antye Greie, Christina Kubisch, Cathy Lane, Francisco López, Annea Lockwood, Andrea Polli, Ian Rawes, Lasse-Marc Riek, Hiroki Sasajima, Davide Tidoni, Hildegard Westerkamp and Jana Winderen. 

cover photograph by my daughter, Pheobe Law (proud dad moment here !)

this is going to be good ! 

very few places on this, so get your name down fast if you're interested

field recording week in Iceland with Chris Watson & Jez riley French

http://www.wildeye.co.uk/iceland.html

A unique opportunity to spend several days recording the sounds of spring in Iceland with Chris Watson, a leading figure in the world of wildlife sound recording, and field recordist and composer Jez riley French. Our base will beLysuholl in the west of Iceland on the south coast of theSnæfellsnes peninsula. As well as recording the wildlife we will also be visiting glaciers, caves, waterfalls, volcano craters, lava beaches, geysirs (Icelandic spelling!) etc.

We will have two large houses at our disposal for the duration, with a chef and two minibuses to allow us the greatest flexibility for recording trips. The range of spectuacular habitats will enable us to experiment with surround sound techniques, ambisonic microphones & software, hydrophones, contact mics, geophones, ultrasonic detectors, parabolic systems and a range of stereo and mono recordings. We will also have a surround sound system at our base for reviewing recordings and group discussions. It is expected that you will have some recording experience and your own equipment to bring (although we will have some extra gear with us that everyone is welcome to try).

article on Chris Watson in the December 2012 issue of Music Tech magazine, in which he mentions & shows uses for JrF contact mics & hydrophones (thanks Chris !)

jez riley french / Index Upload .. Download .. Perform . net

jez riley french / Index Upload .. Download .. Perform . net

listening to the Tate....

early this year I was commission by the Tate to create a piece for headphones, due to be installed for one month in early 2013. The piece will feature surface vibrations of the Tate Modern building itself & this week I began making recordings on site.

during the day I collected recordings of the currently empty (of art work) turbine hall space & railings - the latter picking up not only visitors to the gallery but aspects of construction work around the building.

after closing I had permission to remain in the building overnight & record the empty spaces of each gallery, the turbine hall, newly opened tanks & further surface vibrations.  The experience of being in these spaces, alone, listening closely was quite something - giving me time to connect with the audible signatures. It does take time - to move from a pre-arranged  recording opportunity to finding the sounds, the experience of listening that goes beyond that, becomes connected to personal motivations.

By 11am the following morning my ears were full, for now. I’m not at all interested, in my own ‘work’, in the mere collection of sounds. What matters to me is the personal & the private connection to listening & to capturing moments, therefore to record is not always a matter of opportunity but of a meeting between that opportunity, ones feelings and the intuitive.

leaving the tate on this visit allowed me the ‘space’ to come away feeling satisfied, excited to listen back to the recordings I did make & still connected to the listening experience rather  than the recording one.

this is how I can work.

Later that day I gave a talk to the Association of Motion Picture Sound - a chance to meet some new folks & one or two who’d been on some of the field recording courses I tutor on & then, the next morning I met with Angus Carlyle, who was interviewing me for a book due to be published in 2013. We had a good chat about my work, for the book, & then sat outside the british library talking about our children and our personal connections to sound. On the train home I felt, as I often do, sensations of joy that I am able to spend some of my time listening, recording moments & talking with people who share a fascination with the audible. 

the inspiration is made up of life. 

article on field recording in the Latvian magazine VETO - that's me on the right (photo by Carina Martins)

below is the original interview from which part of this article was taken:

1. What do you understand by 'field recording' (FR) and what kind of

FR you are working with? What is the purpose of making such recordings

personally for you and how do you use them? How did you get into this

stuff and why do you find it fascinating (if you find it at all)?

JrF: wow, thats a big question to start with ! I think the understanding of ‘field recording’ is fluid. What the ‘field’ is & how much intervention into the process are things in constant flux. For me it is simply the act of recording outside of a studio / controlled environment - which is I guess the ‘standard’ definition.  I tend to work a lot with contact microphones, hydrophones, coils & other types of unconventional recording devices, though I do use ambient microphones too. I’m interested in close & durational listening, recording only when it feels right. 

I began at the age of 12 when my mum bought me a portable cassette recorder & since then i’ve never really tired of listening. It’s partly because the sounds around us are, to different degrees, outside of our control & therefore every moment is part of a constantly evolving ‘music’ or sound world.

2. What should be the relationship between the subject (recorder) and

the object which is recorded? Should interaction between both be

limited as much as possible, or it's not really your concern? Do you

mind having a 'staged recording' - in which a sound is produced

intentionally by using certain objects - or you prefer the natural

course of action without recorder's intervention?

JrF: I think these questions are very individual & its for each person to choose. Personally my own approach is varied - in a natural setting I will be as subtle as possible & enjoy the act of listening without intervening - being as inconspicuous as possible. At other times, especially in urban locations, I am ok with being present in the recording itself (for example, the sounds of myself walking or moving objects). What matters most is that the recordings that ‘work’ are the ones that capture moments, moments of being in a place at a certain time. To clarify; a ‘moment’ is a word with qualities other than just a technical description of a time frame.

3. Normally all recordings require some editing and post-production

but how important it is for you to keep the sound as authentic and

close to the source as possible?

JrF: I have to disagree with this statement. It is only because we are so used to hearing processed sound in every day life that such techniques are often used. I don’t do any processing except to decide on the duration of a recording & perhaps sometimes (but not always) to remove a problem if one occurs during the recording (such as a mic pop or crackle due to humidity). I’m fascinated by the sounds as they are. I also don’t use limiters or any form of compression / normalisation. It’s the first thing to really begin a deeper relationship with listening - to remove all of those filters. Our ears are intelligent things, they can tell if a sound has been processed or if a recording of a natural environment has been made with limiters on for example. 

4. Once a sound is recorded and edited, how important would be keeping

the link between the final sound and its original source? Do you think

it has a kind of symbolic representation of the physical world (sound

as an idicative sign pointing to its source) or it shouldn't really

matter, as it's a pure abstraction (according to Schaeffer, in

'reduced listening' the listener percieves the sound as a separate

object without trying to identify it with any other thing)?

JrF: hmmm, this is a slightly tricky question for me to answer as I don’t always feel comfortable with the emphasis on theory in these areas. We all have our own ways of working & have formed different routes though our activities but I am sometimes aware that always making these things public is not ideal. What I will say is that enjoying the act of listening, of recording & then of re-listening to the results is essential. Beyond that the questions of the link between the source & the recording are secondary. My own work does comment significantly on the actuality of the place or object recorded & more so on the emotive experiences involved.

5. Do you find natural/environmental sounds musical, and can they be

used for musical purposes? Do you make any musical compositions with

using such sounds?

JrF: it’s an often discussed question: is it sound or is it music ? for me the simple answer is that ‘sound’ is a science but we listen & hear with our emotions, our senses too & so the term ‘music’ is relevant. I listen musically, but of course it is not composed in the way we understand that term. As to my feelings about making ‘music’ with environmental sounds then I think the quality of the creative vision involved is crucial of course. In my own work I often compose using field recordings but this has developed to be the simple & clear placing of single recordings within durational spaces & specific listening environments.

6. Does a field recording somehow represent the geographical place

where it's been obtained? To this regard, can such field-recorded

sounds give music an unique local character or some other unique

qualities? Don't you think, for example, the sound of rain, a

distantly barking dog or a street with heavy traffic sound all the

same no matter where recorded, or you disagree?

JrF: Field recordings are absolutely a representation of the place & every location & sound is different. Whether the listener is able to perceive those differences is more to do with how close the listening is & how able we are to overcome the limitations placed on the act of listening by the way our society has chosen to treat sound.

1. How important role the spatial acoustics play in your recordings?

JrF: this too is a complex question in some ways. I record a lot in empty buildings & so the spatial acoustics are often the key feature, however, it is not always the focus to capture this in the most exact way (for example with 4, 6 or 8 microphones). It’s more important to me to capture something of my experience of being in these places. I am happy if I listen back later & find that I have captured something that speaks of the place & then, if the recording can communicate to other listeners it is a recording that I might share.

8. Why should one make an effort in recording his own sounds, if

nowadays there are so many sample banks available, including those

very professionally recorded and edited?

JrF: oh, this is an easy one to answer: because its a sheer joy ! re-engaging with listening, opening up ones ears adds so much to everyday life. On a more practical level, if your focus is a creative one, then to actually be involved in the entire process is, as far as i’m concerned, essential & will affect the outcome. Sample banks have their place in certain parts of the mainstream culture industry (film, tv, games etc) but there too there are changes, with more & more emphasis on original content. Audiences demand authenticity more & more - at least that is hopefully what is happening. In a music setting, sample banks are sometimes a sign of unclear musical vision & an unwillingness to be authentic, in my opinion, however lets say that there could well be a very small number of musicians who can use that particular medium to an interesting effect. I think, as with all aspects of technology, the problem is that tools like this can make the user believe in a skills set they actually don’t have. Perhaps for some people that doesn’t matter but i’ve always been more interested in musicians & artists who take time & don’t just buy skills in a package. Its more personal with time.

9. How important and enjoyable the process of searching sound sources

and recording is for you? Is it always an exciting adventure or more

like a profesisonal routine?

Jrf: always enjoyable, always an adventure. I wouldn’t do it otherwise. Of course, if one is working on a specific commission for example, then one has to be professional in how you approach the work BUT if you’re not enjoying it then whats the point ? Personally, I find this is one problem with some ‘sound art’ that involves field recording - there are interesting sounds but no sense of a personal enjoyment or empathy with the act of listening. 

10. Do you have any favorite recordings that you are proud of? Could

you tell about any extraordinary recording missions in which you have

taken part? Any interesting or funny cases in general?

JrF: so many ! The ones that mean the most are the ones with very specific memories - such as one of the fence wire recordings I made whilst on holiday with my daughter. 

To answer your question about extraordinary experience I would say that they are usually the ones in the most ‘normal’ of places. I think to always expect sensational or spectacular environments is to, partly, miss the point of listening. I have had extraordinary experiences sitting in buildings listening for several hours for example, or times when I have found a natural environment that seems to have a very particular ebb & flow of sounds.

11. What are the biggest challenges in getting recorded material in a

decent quality?

JrF: well, if you mean in terms of technical quality, then its down to all kinds of things: quality of the pre-amps, the choice microphone & position etc etc. However, what matters most is the content & that comes down, quite simply, to have good ears that are open & a sensibility that is engaged and fascinated.

12. Historically FR has always been highly dependent on the state of

technology, but still how crucial the high-quality equipment is?

Should field recordings be left exclusively to professionals, or it

should be still worth trying to record something on your own even if

you are an amateur with a rather low budget available? Is FR a purely

technical discipline or still there is room for creativity,

experimantation and imagination?

JrF: god help us if the only thing that matters is the equipment. I would say that the sign of a good field recordist is that they never think of themselves as an ‘expert’ or a professional. As I said earlier, every sound & every location is new & in permanent flux - anyone who believes they know everything that environments do or can offer has simply stopped listening. 

Budget is also not the important thing. Its better to start with cheaper equipment anyway - you tend to learn more & ones creative approach develops more when you’re working within & around limitations. I would say that successful field recording is perhaps 20% skill with the equipment (whatever you have) & 80% inspiration, creativity, luck & listening.

13. JRF: As far as I know, you are also working as a photographer. Do

both - FR and photography - have anything in common?

JrF: for me, personally, they are linked simply because both represent something of my exploration of where I am at a particular time. There is an old saying about radio: ‘radio is better than TV because the pictures are better’ & I think the same is true of photography over the moving image. You see more with a photograph & the imagination can be triggered to a much greater extent. With the moving image, one is given the ‘story’ & so you don’t have to use your imagination as much. Field recording too has these kinds of elements - they can represent a specific place very clearly, but somehow there is always space for one to enter the scene & to explore beyond the obvious elements.

14. Is there anything you wished to record but haven't got chance to

record? Or something that is physically just too difficult to achieve

with current technologies?

JrF: ah, I think if I were to sit down & make a list of all the sounds i’d like to record then:

1. it would take a long time
2. it would mean i’d be tempted to go out to try to find them & let me tell you, it always the recording trips you carefully planned that rarely offer up the best results
3. i’d feel a bit like a ‘collector’ 
4. i’d be stepping outside of the moment

As for technological developments, well I think the simple answer is that we already have the most advanced devices for listening & they are often the ones most overlooked in the pursuit of the technological advances - our ears. I’m happy to explore whats possible with those & use whatever additional listening devices come along as & when - BUT, the most rewarding consequence of field recording is the ability it has to improve the way one listens just with the ears.

thanks for asking me to take part in this interview.

feeling when to record

remembering to not record

Whenever i’m asked what it is I do, or how I want to be referred to when it comes to my creative explorations, the words composer, field recordist, artist are often ones that are applied to how these areas are perceived. However, when it comes to music / sound then for me the word ‘listener’ comes first. I spend more time listening than recording these days - to listen closer, deeper, better is one of the key points & most rewarding aspects of these explorations. 

When it comes to field recording, democratic by nature, although technology has advanced, I sometimes find myself asking whether the actual experience of listening can be overlooked.

I’ve realised more & more that often when you record your concentration is on the act of collecting. You monitor the sounds rather than simply listen to them. Sometimes a sound will enter the audible field that is less pleasing to your perception of the previous few minutes listening. When this happens its possible to think only in terms of the possession you will take from the location - the recording. The fact is that all those sounds are the location & if one constantly thinks of what one will ‘own’ by recording it then the question arises of whether this influences the way one listens at the time.

Of course, there is the temptation when one is equipped with a recorder & microphones to collect sounds on an obsessional level. Certainly I know that for myself learning to not press the record button was a pivotal moment in my development as a listener & in terms of the work I might produce.

my compositions are about these choices, the moments when ‘record’ feels right, the times when not pressing ‘record’ informs my sense of place. 

moments exist in, well....moments. What we have of them if we press record, or the shutter of a camera, can be very slight. I feel it is the intuitive & emotive impulse that is my creativity. These sensativities are subtle, private & individual.