Thanks for the journey - beautifully concieved

CS/DL : f-o-m.bandcamp.com/album/upstream-ensemble

@forms-of-minutiae and TBA21–Academy present "upstream ensemble", a communal happening and aqueous sound piece initiated and composed by field recordist, artist, and f–o–m co-founder Pablo Diserens (@pablodiserens)

During the 2022/23 digital residency hosted by TBA21–Academy’s Ocean-Archive.org, Pablo Diserens launched an open call inviting members of its online platform ocean comm/uni/ty (and external enthusiasts) to venture into the world and record aqueous sonic encounters. The aim of this collective liquid attuning was to gather sound recordings from various wet ecologies while stimulating listening and field recording gestures regardless of any previous experience.

Recordings from 35 contributors were woven into the long-form sound composition "upstream ensemble" which navigates between the multiplicity of the water cycle as a sounding body. The work moves upstream through oceans, rivers, pipe networks, ponds, and glaciers while investigating the continuous flow of water and the environments that surround it. Listeners encounter drifting habitats trickling with the songs of sea lions, dolphins, blue whales, humpback whales, Arctic terns, and algae photosynthesis – as well as with the invasive hums of submarines’ sonars, boats, and naval industries. With "upstream ensemble" some of the world’s aqueous fauna, flora, geologies, and technologies mingle into a synchronized motion that documents the sonic articulations of these wet zones.

In resonance with Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening practice and inspired by Rachel Carson’s exploration of the intertidal zone in her book "The Edge of the Sea", this project contributes to an ever-expanding list of works that propose a focus on listening as a way of engaging and existing with the planet’s waters. By stimulating shared listening and attuning practices, Pablo Diserens aims to develop a sense of interconnectedness by blurring the boundaries between species as well as environments. Experiencing aqueous biomes both individually and collectively acts as a way of rethinking our relationships with the world. Despite these being mostly solitary experiences, Pablo believes that field recording and listening are communal and environmental practices that form gateways for earthly synchronicity and world mapping in time and space. Thus listening in turn can become a political act that sparks emotional bonds with the world and its biotic communities.

˜

concept: Pablo Diserens and Fiona Middleton (TBA21–Academy)

composition and mixing: Pablo Diserens

with sound contributions by: Alëna Korolëva, Alexandros Maragkoudakis, Bence Kovács-Vajda, Christopher Dean, Cyane Findji, Damian Pace, Elise Rigot, Eliza Collin, Fiona Middleton, Francesco Previtali, Ilù Seydoux, Irene Mansoldo, Isabel Val, Jakob Köchert, Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, Joana Moher, Katy Lewis Hood, Kosmas Phan Dinh, Kseniya Lushnikova, Leo Maassen, Ludwig Berger, Mat Eric Hart, Mathias Arrignon, Matty Yeomans, Mélia Roger, Moritz Zeisner, Nikos Sotirelis, Nina Blume, Ocean Networks Canada, Pablo Diserens, Sem Zeeman, Slavek Kwi, Surrealich, Thibault Noirot, Varoujan Cheterian.

all profit of the release will be donated to the Blue Marine Foundation.

listening with good speakers or headphones is recommended as the piece features a large range of frequencies (notably blue whales' subsonic calls).

cassette mastering by Mathieu Bonnafous

graphic design by Cecilia Murgia

cassettes pictures by Camille Blake

duration: 30’29’’ — C60
piece repeats on both sides — limited edition of 100
published by forms of minutiae & TBA21–Academy — fom09 — 2023

special thanks to all the contributors, Fiona Middleton, Markus Reymann, Michal Kucerak, Petra Linhartova, TBA21, Madelyn Byrd, Diane Barbé, Lou Croff Blake, Thom Lucero, and Mélia Roger.

cassette & digital

pablo diserens & the ocean comm/uni/ty — upstream ensemble [fom09]

This is a very quiet, minimal recording, and would best be appreciated, understood and enjoyed if listened to with good quality headphones or speakers in a quiet space, or at a quiet time, with little or no extraneous noise penetrating the natural original quietude of the soundscape. (This is a very difficult thing to ask, to be sure; but what is the value of listening to a recording of quietude if the quietude cannot be heard and felt because of environing outside noise? Even good listening needs to be well-timed!)

This recording was made at midday while sitting beside a deep pool of water formed by a rivulet flowing into the nearby Styx River (near the Big Tree Forest Reserve, in the Styx Valley, Tasmania). The riverside was densely moist and green with moss, soft tree ferns, sassafras, myrtle and dogwood. Farther up the slope, majestic old mountain ash trees (Eucalyptus regnans) towered tall.

It was lightly raining; raindrops sifted through the forest canopy and giant tree ferns, sprinkling upon the surface of the pool, making very delicate sounds that could clearly be heard, even though the perpetual sighing hush of the Styx River filled the forest space. At the floor of the forest, the air was still; high above, a wandering breeze brushed the crests of the tall eucalypts. Here and there, Grey Shrike-thrushes were calling to one another. At that moment, I didn't know of the pool's secretive inhabitant. When I returned to sit by the pool again in the evening, I witnessed the platypus gliding silently and elegantly beneath the surface of the water.

This unprocessed recording was made with respect in the land of the Palawa people of Lutruwita/Tasmania. May these priceless, precious forests remain perpetually protected. Profound gratitude and honour to the many people - from all over the world - who have struggled tirelessly for decades against both government and business to protect these forests from logging - and must always continue to do so!

2023.09.25 Platypus Pool Quietude. Big Tree Forest Reserve. Styx Valley. Early Spring.

This longish recording focusses on First Light rather than Dawn (Second Light and Sunrise), although it includes the beginnings of the latter. It ought to be listened to with good quality headphones, or good quality speakers, at a mid-range volume of around fifty to sixty per cent. The recording is unedited: one of the things that particularly interests me, and that I especially enjoy, about this early spring First Light forest soundscape (and other similar early spring forest Dawn recordings that I made during this road trip to Tasmania) is precisely its very gradual, slow, minimal, and spacious development. This sounds nothing like an overly-busy tropical rainforest. The 'silence' never completely disappears.

In this rich, dense, moist, cool-temperature southern forest of Tasmania, at the time that this excerpt begins, it is still fairly dark to the human eye. The first First Light call is (as usual) from a Black Currawong (Strepera fuliginosa), a species of Currawong that is found only in Tasmania. Its call is quite unique, very unlike any mainland Currawong, and I grew to adore it, and to recognise it as the main Tasmanian forest sentinel of dawn.

We also hear the final few night calls of Ninox novaeseelandiae leucopsis, which I would prefer to refer to as the 'Tasmanian Boobook', rather than its more common and familiar name, 'Morepork'. Both names are, of course, onomatopoeic labels provided by Europeans. But the name 'Morepork' suggests, to me, an image of radically displaced Europeans in an unfamiliar landscape, craving pork meat, and hearing this beautiful owl call as though it were expressing their own cravings: 'More pork!" (Interestingly, DNA evidence has suggested that Ninox novaeseelandiae is more closely related to the New Zealand Boobook (also commonly known in NZ as the 'Morepork') than to the mainland Southern Boobook (Ninox boobook).)

The other early caller, here, is the Yellow Wattlebird (Anthocaera paradoxa), also found only in Tasmania.

Gradually, the 'Dawn Chorus' stirs and unfurls into a more richly-populated wakefulness. Thankfully, the introduced and now feral Superb Lyrebirds, which have seriously infested this region, seem to be late risers that enjoy sleeping in: somewhat later in the original recording, they pretty much take over most of the forest soundscape.

Recorded with meditative respect upon the land of the Nuenonne tribe of the Palawa people. The recording was made with a pair of MKH 8040s in ORTF into an F3 recorder.

2023.09.23 First Light. Huon Valley. Early Spring.

This unedited excerpt from a longer Night Listening recording begins at 03:35 (ACDT).

The background hush is a combination of a variable light breeze through adjacent but relatively distant native forest, and the sound of a distant creek flowing through pastures.

Recorded on the land of the Peramangk people.

2023.12.22 Night Listening. Night Pastures. Summer Solstice.

Night Listening means sitting, through the night, in a chosen location, as still and quiet as possible, often for many hours, absorbed in purely listening, while recording. This is an excerpt from a recent Night Listening. It involves three Brushtail Possums, and one Red Fox. The responses of the Possums to the barking of the Fox are very interesting. (Don't start with the volume raised to more than 50 to 60 per cent: some of the fox barks are quite close and loud.)

Recorded on the land of the Kaurna people.

2023.12.28 Night Listening. Night Forest. Red Fox and Brushtail Possums. Early Summer.

The final three minutes of the midnight firework display, as recorded by two different rigs, with the microphones of both rigs mounted on the same microphone support bar. (1) A pair of large-diaphragm condenser omnis in AB at 63 cm. (2) A pair of small-diaphragm condenser omnis in a semi-binaural arrangement. The binaural rig sat in the middle between the two large-diaphragm omnis. Both types of microphones have very flat frequency responses. (1) was recorded with a MixPre-6 II, and (2) with an F3. The original recordings were made at 96/32, here normalised to -1.00 dB and converted to 96/24. Listening with good quality headphones, preferably with as close to a flat frequency response as possible, is recommended.

Recorded on the land of the Kaurna people.

Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/CityofAdelaide/ (modified).

2024.01.01 Adelaide New Year Fireworks Excerpt: Two Rigs.

This work is intended as a meditative companion-piece to an earlier work, https://soundcloud.com/hearingbeings/20211024-night-music-spring, and follows a similar structure. However, it was recorded in an entirely different location (thirty-six kilometres away).

In this piece, the auditory journey of approach towards the distant source has more intervals, and is more gradual, than in the earlier work. Listening to what may be heard along the way is as important as arrival. On this occasion, there is only one Eastern Banjo Frog in the midst of a plenitude of Spotted Marsh Frogs, along with some Brown Tree Frogs and Common Eastern Froglets.

Other than balancing gain levels, the sequence of recordings constituting this work (made during one night at one location) has not been filtered or processed in any way (with the exception only of the final two minutes).

Fixing the volume from the outset to a fairly low level, e.g., around 40 per cent, and certainly not more than 50 per cent, is recommended. What is distant and quiet will gradually become nearer and louder.

Recorded on the land of the Peramangk people.

The track image is a modification of an original photo of an Eastern Banjo Fog (Limnodynastes dumerlii) taken by by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos and made available under a CC BY-NC licence.

@Bandcamp

2023.12.23 Night Dreaming. One Final Banjo Frog. Early Summer.

thanks to mike jedlicka @ optic echo presents for hosting this mix on his podcast/mixcloud  platform.

https://www.mixcloud.com/opticecho/oep-22724-wndfrm/
https://www.opticechopresents.com/e/oep-22724-wndfrm/

tracklisting - 

france jobin - singulum -  n 
alëna korolëva -  accidental wilderness - redwinged pingpong 
mbogua mbugua mbugua - silole - rushing river at night
niknak - bashi - compass
steve roden - view - untitled 
chloe alexandra thompson - moire - divergence
christina kubisch - night flights - the cats dream
cheryl e. leonard - chattermarks: field recordings from palmer station -  sparring elephant seals
isobel clouter & rob mullender  - myths of origin: sonic ephemera from east asia - aosigetunoer descent
gescom - minidisc - pricks
catherine lee & matt hannafin - five shapes : improvisations for oboe d'amore & percussion  - oval (five shapes pt. 4)
richard chartier - further materials - improvisation_122904b
elbejee - homeopathic waft of signal - aötebe
ernst karel - heard laboratories - chemistry laboratory / center for nanoscale systems / ...
sadnoise - according to chance - grid ops binary left shift rotating
kotoka suzuki - shimmer, tree - reservoir
mHZ - function - y = x
mHZ - form - formd'
yann novak - in residence - 3
heller - .01..05. - 2093hz

please support the artists - 

https://lineimprint.bandcamp.com/album/singulum
https://ryoanji-alena.bandcamp.com/album/accidental-wilderness
https://m2thepower3.bandcamp.com/album/silole
https://niknakdjmusic.bandcamp.com/album/bashi
https://steveroden.bandcamp.com/album/view
https://chloealexandrathompson.bandcamp.com/album/moir
https://imprec.bandcamp.com/album/night-flights
https://cherylleonard.bandcamp.com/album/chattermarks-field-recordings-from-palmer-station
https://www.and-oar.org/and_32.html
https://bleep.com/release/7513-gescom-mini-disc
https://catherineleematthannafin.bandcamp.com/album/five-shapes-improvisations-for-oboe-damore-percussion
https://richardchartier.bandcamp.com/album/further-materials
https://kathyhinde.bandcamp.com/album/homeopathic-waft-of-signal
https://www.and-oar.org/and_35.html
https://sadnoise.bandcamp.com/album/according-to-chance
https://kotokasuzuki.bandcamp.com/album/kotoka-suzuki-shimmer-tree
https://millihertz.bandcamp.com/album/function
https://millihertz.bandcamp.com/album/form
https://yannnovak.bandcamp.com/album/in-residence
https://optical-sound.bandcamp.com/album/01-05-os-011

thanks for listening.

wndfrm guest DJ mix - optic echo presents 2/27/24

Singing Sicilian work songs in an abandoned quarry under Mount Etna with Matilde Ponti and Architecture students of ETH Zurich.

Cava di Nicolosi, 2022.

Cava di Nicolosi, Etna

Selection of my musical activities in 2016, the year of the Monkey.
Next to solo work, this selection consists of collaborative compositions produced with Marko Paunović, Rune Kaagaard, Igor Stangliczky; and a contribution by Muqata'a — processed filed recording of Ramallah.

Year of the Monkey

I was born in Ulyanovsk, a Russian city situated on the Volga river, about 700km east from Moscow. I commuted to school every day on a streetcar, model Tatra T3. These cars were made in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s, and some were still running in 2019 when I visited my hometown. I took a nostalgic ride through
the city on an old, dilapidated Tatra T3 and was captivated by the groaning, screeching machine. The city has already started to replace its streetcars so this
might be my last ride on this ancient beloved. Hoping to preserve a sweet memory I made some recordings on a sunny September afternoon.

Old Tram's Song (Tatra T3)

Alëna Korolëva

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