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burdt on 08/10/2011 at 09:00AM
Tahitian Field Recordings
Cylinders 8667 to 8671 are a mystery for several reasons.
At first glance they’re run of the mill Blue Amberols. These were some of the most mass produced cylinders of the cylinder era.
Upon closer examination, however, these cylinders are something else entirely. Here's the cataloger's note for further insight:
Custom Blue Amberol recordings, possibly from a larger set of brown wax field recordings that were recorded in Faaone Tahiti, and possibly privately pressed as Blue Amberol cylinders by Edison in New Jersey. Recordings were possibly made by anthropologists Frank Stimson or Edward S. C. Handy in 1923. Four of the five cylinders are stamped "Tahiti-#" on the rim and handwritten notes on the boxes say "Himene Chorus, Faaone, Tahiti, 1923 (Handy)."
The biggest mystery here is how these cylinders were recorded. The cataloger’s note suggests that these five recordings are privately pressed dubbings of brown wax cylinders. This is almost certainly not the case because the groove widths and reproduction speeds don’t match up with those belonging to production Blue Amberol cylinders of the era. Furthermore, if these were dubbed from wax cylinders, the playback noise of the second machine should be audible, but extra noise just isn’t there. How were these five cylinders recorded then?
The groove width and reproduction speed matches up with that of brown wax cylinders. Perhaps a brown wax recording machine was jerry-rigged into recording onto Blue Amberols. How did the field recordists find five blank Blue Amberols then? Cylinder shaving machines existed for deleting brown wax recordings. Perhaps these were also jerry-rigged into deleting pre-existing Blue Amberol recordings.
Unless the details of their recording techniques are among their papers at the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, Handy or Stimson’s Tahitian field recordings will continue to puzzle cylinder enthusiasts for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, the contents of these recordings are as interesting as the questions behind their provenance.
The recordings fade in to an already established harmony and end abruptly as the cylinder grooves run out, a common occurrence in cylinder field recordings.
Nevertheless, what is captured is undeniably human and vital in spite of the narrow dynamic and tonal bandwith the medium allowed.
Himene is etymologically related to the word hymn and the sound these cylinders capture is a marriage of the vocal songs of native Tahitians and the sacred choral music that the European missionaries left behind. It is a haunting sound that retains its distance while remaining innately familiar.
(I have posted pictures of an additional mystery object that accompanied these cylinders after the jump.)
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xe_val on 11/13/2010 at 12:20AM
Compilatorio Alg-label Vol. 2 [2006]
Xesús Valle - Torolóu
VV.AA. - Recopilatorio alg-label #2 [alg026]
- 01. @c: 56E1
- 02. madame cell: 899
- 03. Do: olatuetan behin
- 04. Durán Vázquez: Asturias, patria querida
- 05. Mig: Elmez
- 06. Kenneth Kirschner: oct. 13, 2001
- 07. Maina: Ou[tono]
- 08. Thanos Chrysakis: Flutter
- 09. Xesús Valle: Torolóu
- 10. äNACRUSä: La cocina de Jonás
- 11. Neno: Intento
- 12. Berio Molina: Cáumico
- 13. Brian Lavelle: The selby codex
- 14. Longina: Vino
alg-label compilate#2 CD-r(limited edition) / Online
14 exclusive tracks by artists from Galicia, Portugal, Euskal Herria, United States, Greece and scotland.
Alg-a netlabel want to thank all the artists involved in this proyect.
M.Carvalhais & P.Tudela, N.Muñoz, J.Irazoki, D. Vazquez, M. Seoane, K. Kirschner, I. Cordal, T. Chrysakis, X. Valle, M. Pinheiro, R. Janeiro, B. Molina, B. Lavelle e C. Longina.
xe_val on 11/12/2010 at 11:58PM
Far Afield [2005]
Uveaele - Lava D´or
VV.AA. Far Afield - Webbed hand records 055
"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 phonographers process of capturing sound and active to describe the composers process were used; however, this sparked a great debate over how passive the phonographers 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 phonographers product is rarely as ordered as a musicians composition and a composers 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.
http://www.archive.org/details/wh055
First Disk A01. Quiet American - Khulna Station (for Andrew Raffo Dewar) A02. Erick Gallun - Open Field Decay A03. Lyndsey Cockwell - DWP A04. Don Bosco - Watching A05. Doug Haire - The Hand Off A06. John Hanes - Tuscan Gate A07. o.m.s. - n.m.a - format2002edit04m A08. Carlo Giordani - Valle Rossa A09. John Roach - The Two Shades A10. Christopher Fleeger - Painting A11. Direwires - Dayslumber via the Train A12. devslashnull - Von Roll Grate System Test: 1984 A13. Raphael Lyon - Virginia Beach A14. Scott Smallwood - Basement Well A15. The Outsider - Aurora Storm A16. Angus Carlyle - The Sea Swells AgainSecond Disk B01. Carlos Santos - Crossing Point B02. Pete Stollery - Banchory Ears B03. Giuseppe Rapisarda - Dalla Finestra B04. HarS - SportNationalB05. Uveaele - Lava dOr B06. Aaron Lewis - Long Pond 2/1 10am B07. Steve Bradley - SO2 Emission B08. Robert Horton - Insect Trust B09. Eric Bollman - 14th Street B10. Davide Morelli - Foto.01 B11. Thanos Chrysakis - Afar...Sounds Begin to Ooze B12. Martiensgohome - White Chapel Moose B13. Ambrose Pottie - Chainwash 16 B14. Seht - Death in Strip-mall B15. Archive - Imprint B16. Fred Yarm - Downspout Gamelon
xe_val on 11/12/2010 at 11:09PM
O Forno das Formulacións [2005]
[ALG012] - uveaele - O forno das formulacións
the album concept starts with a journey to the "santa mariña de augas santas" underground chapell, called "o forno" in allariz (ourense, spain). mysterious place where the water flows on the floor, under an arched dome and an absolute darkness.
Five manipulations of a single field recording in the basement of the chapel, give way to the only album of this Valle´s audio project "Uveaele"
katya-oddio on 11/09/2010 at 02:00PM
Hiss, Crackle, Pop
The release This Is The End, Beautiful Friend by File Under Toner is a public domain treasure trove of album noise for all artists wishing to add the authentic warm crackle of old recordings to their new works. These sounds were culled from the end of the groove of vinyl, acetate, and even cardboard records.
recording the silent final grooves of records. not so silent after all. playing them loud enough to capture the hiss, the pops, the clicks. adding a couple of digital delays, some EQ and filtering, a little reverb here and there… not much, really. it’s all in the records if you know where to listen....
if you have the means, stamp these tracks on a three sided LP. you will have three free extra end grooves, and a blank side to needle-surf.
Are the hiss, crackles, and pops on records protected by copyrights? This controversial project by File Under Toner (Anki Toner, founder of Hazard Records, the free public domain label) posed the question and got into some trouble.
photo: "Golden Turntable" by Neil Ian of Nimble Photography [license]
