The main goal of my trip to Lorraine in the east of France was to record Common Midwife Toads. The location was an old disused quarry just outside Lérouville and knowing the toads begin calling after dusk, I arrived early to have time to scope out the location. I was immediately greeted by a group of very vocal Pool Frogs, their calls echoing around the quarry. I captured this recording much later that night, just after midnight. 

Sound Devices Mix Pre 6 + 2 x Sennheiser MKH 8040s (ORTF)
Recorded on 05.06.2022
Photo credit : Holger Krisp (Creative Commons)

Pool Frogs - Lorraine, France

Excerpt from the CD album 'In Sadness, Silence and Solitude' (original 1997/ remastered 2006).

The Well of Sadness

2015年 12月 24日発売。
NBストアでは先行販売予約開始!! 未発表音源CDR特典つきです!!
https://t.co/AQiEVOmvyL

“When I go into the nature and focus on particular sounds as if I were the conductor, I find there are numerous accidentally composed music playing here and there. And my idea was to join this nature orchestra providing sounds to them to form another different world which would enable myself to listen to them from a completely different angle.
I decided to use water as the main theme as I’m somehow attracted to them maybe as I grew up in a place where it’s cloudy and raining all year around. Sounds evolved accidentally from different places of different period and times, and that very moment I played / not played to them. To me, it was full of excitement to join the nature. Some sounds were able to record upon countless visits, and some just happen to be lying there. I tried different approaches so that people can enjoy and face each and every sounds. It would be my pleasure if you can listen to the happenings and the inevitable, and also conscious and the subconscious. “

この作品は、自然の中で自然の音と共に演奏をし、後に多重録音などをしないというコンセプトで作った作品です。
僕は自分が指揮者にでもなったつもりで音を選んで聴けば、身の回りには常に偶然に作曲された音楽が溢れていると考えていました。
そして、その偶然のオーケストラに自分も参加し、自分が音を足すことで全く別の聴き方が出来たり、自然の音が自分で演奏しているかのように感じられたり、無かった世界を生むことが出来ると考えていました。
作品のモチーフに水を選んだのは、年中雨や曇りの土地で育ったからなのか、昔から水の音や水っぽい場所に惹かれていて、何かを創作する際に水をモチーフにし続けてきたからです。
色々な年月、色々な場所で、その時間、その瞬間に偶然鳴った音。
ある瞬間に自分が鳴らした音、鳴らさなかった音など、自然と一緒に演奏をする醍醐味が作品内に詰まっています。
何度も何度も何度も通い尽くして録音出来た音や、たまたまそこに居たから録れた音など、1音1音とじっくりと向き合ってもらえるよう色々と趣向を凝らしました。
偶然と必然、作為と無作為なんかを意識しながら聴いてもらえたら良いなぁと思います。

松本一哉 / kazuya matsumoto

水のかたち / Shape of water
01:  触れる / Touch
02: 踊る水面(みなも) / Dance of the water surface
03: 刻む / synchronize
04: 溜水する鉄の球 / Slipping iron ball
05: 鳴嚢と泡沫 / Vocal sac and bubble
06: 叩く / Knock
07: 梅雨の終わりと夏の始まり / End of rainy season, beginning of summer
08: ひぐらしそのひぐらし / When They Cry
09: 撫でる / Stroke
10: 秋霖 / Autumn night rain
11: たゆたう水月 / Sway of the water moon
12: 混ざる/ Blend
13: とことこと夜の足音 / Silent foot steps at night
14: もえもえ燃える雨ふるふる / Just the sound of bonfire and the rain
15: 擦る / Rub
16: 波に消える波紋音 / Ripple vanishing into the wave

『水のかたち / Shape of water』 Trailer.1

striped marsh frogs/northern banjo frog/aquatic life
wet season in the kroombit mountains, qld
february, 2016

Morning Chorus: Above and below a creek in the Kroombit mountains

Любящая доброта по отношению к другу

recorded 06/25/17 Osli, Hungary with 2x8040 in ORTF

Fire-bellied Toad (Bombina bombina)

During the afternoon in a field close to the small village of Benesti, some toads are singing, accompanied by a light wind and some birds. 

Recording by an ORTF Setup Schoeps CCM4 microphones in a Cinela Suspension ORTF. Recorded on a Sound Devices 633.
Original recording in Wave 96kHz 24bit
Sound Reference: RO-180710T05
GPS: 44.662814, 23.917906
Sames sound on Freesound (in wave 96kHz) https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/434661/
Recorded during a residency by Semisilent http://semisilent.ro/

Benesti 

Toads singing during the afternoon, in a field in Romania

Larvae eating a log from the inside in the Amazon rainforest. Recorded with Sony PCM M10 and a pair of Clippy EM172 mics. More sounds from the Amazon rainforest at https://mindful-audio.com/amazon-jungle/

Amazon basin - Decomposing log - Larvae feast

Recorded by an ORTF setup (Schoeps CCM4x2) on a Sound Devices Mixpre6
Original recording in Wave, 96k, 24bit
GPS: -22.392431,-44.553263
Sound Ref:  BR-190812-07
Recorded during the Interativos 2019 organized by Silo
Download on Freesound here https://freesound.org/people/felix.blume/sounds/479286/

Toads during the night in a pound, in Serrinha do Alambri (Brazil)

Early Morning Birdsong - 3rd May 2020 05:30

https://binauraldiaries.co.uk/early-morning-birdsong/

Early morning field recording of birdsong Bristol.

Inspired by International Dawn Chorus Day:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/dawn-chorus-day

Gear:
Sony PCM-M10
Clippy Stereo EM172 microphones

Photo by Wojciech Święch on Unsplash

Early Morning Birdsong 3rd May 2020 05:30

Félix Blume is a sound artist and sound engineer. 
His work is focused on listening, it invites us to live sonic experiences that enable a different perception of the surrounding. He uses sound as a basic material in sound pieces, videos, actions and installations. His process is often collaborative, working with communities, using public space as the context within which he explores and presents his works. He is interested in myths and their contemporary interpretation, in human dialogues both with inhabited natural and urban contexts, in what voices can tell beyond words.

Toads during the night in a pound, in Serrinha do Alambri (Brazil)

felixblume

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