A recording of a small stream with the background roar of a large waterfall some distance away. Recorded on Vancouver Island outside of Comox in February 2011. Recorded with Edirol R-4 and a Rode NTG-02

MountainStream

An soundscape recording of a summer day in Edmonton from my backyard. The sound of an icecream truck and a plane flying overhead. These sounds are set against a nearly constant atmosphere of birds. This is a binaural recording made with Roland CS-10EM binaural mics and a Roland R-05 recorder. 

This is a binaural recording so please listen with headphones. 

IceCreamTruckandPlane

The first recording on my roadtrip to the 2011 Rainbow Gathering. I was having my morning coffee outside my motel room when everything goes crazy. The cleaning staff walk by and say Good morning just before the industrial noise begins. This is a binaural recording so please wear headphones. You'll notice a plane fly over and a great deal of traffic. When I recorded this I couldn't see the highway as it was hidden by the trees. But it's so clearly there that listening back to it suggests more traffic than I remember. 

Good morning Mr. Leafblower

My first morning at the 2011 Rainbow Gathering. We're up in the mountain...there's snow still on the ground at the end of june. It's wet and cold but we're here. I can hear the people around me getting themselves settled and smell the smoke from the morning wood fires. There's a plane flying over head. People are going somewhere. I am staying here. We are moving at such different speeds. 
This is a binaural recording so please use headphones.


Good morning birds and airplanes

The small single burner is started and the water goes on to make coffee. The morning fills up. It's not longer just the birds and the airplanes. Music fills the air. This morning's coffee is not drowned out by passing trucks. But there is much to do. Going back and forth from the burner to the tent the flutter of the nylon and the whir of the zipper. 

This is a binaural recording so please use headphones. 

Coffee is being made at last

A collage of Three Edmonton 7Eleven Stores' outside environment. Although a great deal of information online suggests that these stores use classical music as a loitering deterrent this seems to not be true in Edmonton. 

7Eleven - No Security Please

Audio documentary about the Decentralized Dance Party http://www.decentralizeddanceparty.com/ 
Everything is recorded with Binaural microphones so it will sound better if you listen with headphones. The live recording was at the Calgary DDP in September of 2011. 


Decentralized Dance Party Documentary

Scott Cook playing at Edmonton's Wunderbar on January 1st 2012. 

ScottCookPlaysVanZandt

Koo Nimo (born Daniel Amponsahon 3 October 1934) is a leading folk musician of Palm wine music or Highlife music from Ghana.[1][2] Born in the village of Foase, in the Atwima District of Ashanti Region in Ghana,West Africa, he worked in various jobs in science and medical-related field while maintaining his interest in music. In 1957, when the former British colony of the Gold Coast became the independent country of Ghana, (From Wikipedia) Koo Nimo first received national acclaim through the formation of the Addadam Agofomma ensemble. Many of his songs tell traditional stories and are sung in the language Twi. Along with one or two guitars and vocals, the traditional Ashanti palmwine ensemble consists of traditional instruments of West Africa, including the apentemma and the donno, the frikyiwa (metal castanet), the prempensua (rhumba box), the ntorwa (hollow gourd rattle with beads or seeds woven around it on a net), and the nnawuta (consisting of two iron bells that provide the key rhythmic pattern) or dawuro (banana-shaped bell). 
This is a binaural recording I made with Koo Nimo (so listen with headphones) at the University of Alberta. It was just the two of us in a small room discussing palmwine guitar music. 

Koo Nimo solo performance and discussion

At 2pm today, Wed February 1st 2012, a small group of Edmonton Occupy Protesters attempted to set up on the University of Alberta Campus. They were met by a large number of Edmonton Police who blocked the entrance to the campus. Peacefully, the protesters on the opposite side of the street sang songs and asked passing students to cross the street to join them. Above a news helicopter circles.  

--please wear headphones as this is a binaural recording--

OccupyEdmonton Raging Grannies Sing

Michael B. MacDonald is Assistant Professor of Music at MacEwan University in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications--western Canada’s only BMus in Jazz and Contemporary Popular Music--and is also Adjunct Professor of Popular Music at the University of Alberta.


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