There is something poetic and magical about a lost place.
An old industrial plant on a country road where life passes by.
The birds chirping their happy song and the wind stirring the old skeleton of the abandoned place.
As if it were telling about his past.
Listen to the stories.

Geek Note: MKH8040+MKH30 MS + Barcus Berry Contact Microphone + LOM Geofon

The Wind, The Birds And The Lost Door

At about 10:15 pm on these warm June nights when the first fireflies can be seen, the bats are coming to hunt. They fly circles and eights over our little pond at breathtaking speed in the dark, hunting for insects. Most of what you'll hear are the small Pipistrellus bats which are common here; sometimes there is a larger bat, possibly Eptesicus, but I'm not an expert.
This is my first recording with two (cheap) bat detectors, creating a stereo track. Listen with headphones to get an idea of the movement.
I removed the pauses - sometimes the bats were hunting elsewhere for several minutes

20220619 Bats in stereo

Daktari is a Berlin-Band I played with in the 90's. On guitar: Jörg Maria Zeger. Keyboards: Michael Walz. Drums and Vocals: me myself Göttin Gala

08 Daktari Kokodei

http://www.workinprogress.ca/projects/phibow/

phibow1

You're hearing dew falling in the predawn at Nagzira wildlife reserve in central India. This recording was made around 5.30 in the morning,

In the centre of Nagzira forest is a lake, and on the far side, a pair of Grey-headed Fish Eagles are roosting. What you'll hear is their morning wake up and pair bonding calling. There's also a last chorus of Spotted Owlets before the day begins, fruit bats fluttering close to microphone, and the cries of a Lapwing from the far end of the lake.

(Thanks to our friend Girish Vaze for his image of the Fish Eagle.)

The Fish Eagles of Nagzira, Central India, introduced by Andrew Skeoch

Regno

contact mic recording of wind on a dead pine tree at the Lithuanian coast.

wind on a dead pine tree, Nida

This recording is made below the surface of the pond, revealing some of the acoustic reality under water. From this perspective, the single voices become clearer and the movement of single individuals an intimate part of the listening experience.

Grodsång under vatten / Frog chorus under water

testing my new 'd-series' hydrophone design (available from June 2012 from hydrophones.blogspot.com) against the DPA8011's. 

first section are the DPA's then the d-series !

The DPA's are no longer in production but did used to cost over £1000 each & if you want one now you'd be lucky to find them below £2000 each second hand. 

So, my d-series will be priced around £60 each & though I say it myself i'm very pleased with the way they stacked up in comparison with the DPA's. 

The DPA's have a stronger signal as they have a built in additional pre-amp, however the most interesting difference is the way the two hydrophone designs pick up some of the same sounds but at different levels. Indeed the DPA's seem not to pick up at all lots of the subtle sounds the d-series do. The DPA's seem to focus on the higher end sounds & the d-series cover a wider range of sounds more equally. I know i'm biased but I much prefer the sound of the d-series, which to my ears capture a more diverse, richer & more complex sound world.

Another interesting fact is that the DPA's had hardly any low frequency response. I tried applying various low pass filters on the Sound Devices recorder to them & none made any difference to the sound. This was a surprise indeed & i'm somewhat puzzled by that.

Both recordings were made directly into the SD7 series recorder, with gain levels equal & in the same location: 2 hydrophones of each model either side of a small wooden pier on an inlet on the east coast of sweden in May 2012.

Of course, the d-series are my design so as I said earlier I am biased, but lets just say that i'm very pleased by the way they perform next to the high-end DPA's.

£2000 + for a DPA8011 (if you can find one)
or
£60 for a JrF d-series 

hmmm....

Hydrophone tests d-series vs dpa8011

-Composition #4 of a one sound source only project.

-Modus operandi: through metamorphosis & deep transformations, creating an entire piece by using one single sound source only.

-Regurgitating Pulverized Strings sound source used: mosesa string instrument invented by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/wilhelm-matthies">Wilhelm Matthies</a>.

Part of the digital album "Taking To Pieces, Heaping Together " http://ilse.bandcamp.com/album/taking-to-pieces-heaping-together

Regurgitating Pulverized Strings

For more than 30 years, Michael Peters has explored the world looking for new sounds. Most of his musical output veers from the mainstream and has been difficult to categorize. The renowned WIRE magazine has reviewed two of his albums in their "Outer Limits" section, which says it all.

Michael's main instrument is the guitar - he studied with renowned guitarist, Robert Fripp and also is influenced by guitarists David Torn, Eivind Aarset, and Fred Frith. He extends the guitar using electronic effects, midi, and livelooping techniques. He has played in avant rock and open improvisational groups.

He also has experimented with sampling and cutting up random FM radio broadcasts to use as elements in live improvisation.

By the same token, he has become more and more fascinated by using more stuctured compositions, using the computer as a musical instrument.

For anyone with open ears, the world of sound outside of regular music is also full of wonder. Michael loves to record interesting environmental sounds (field recording) and then recontextualize and sculpt them using digital tools such as granular synthesis, incorporating the results into musical compositions and soundscapes.

Michael is a member of Looper's Delight, a very active international community of people who use looping technology for their music making. He also is a seminal and pivotal member of the Chain Tape Collective, a group of dozens of electronic and electro-acoustic composers whose musicians create collaborative music projects together.

From time to time, Michael Peters has also been active as a programmer and visual artist in the field of abstract computer graphics. He is an avid photographer and has designed his own websites as well as the one for the Chain Tape Collective.

In the year 2000, he started an ambitious project called MY2K where he created an all original 10 second piece of music for every single day of the year.

In 2008, he hosted the 1st International Livelooping Festival in Cologne, featuring ten livelooping soloists from Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, and USA. In 2009, he performed at livelooping festivals in Belgium, Italy, and California.

Michael Peters lives in a small village east of Cologne, Germany. He loves to sit on a bench outside, listening ... 

20220619 Bats in stereo

fieldveloopity