One inning of little league baseball, captured June 8, 2022 in Maple Grove, Minnesota, USA.

Third Inning

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]

Hautes-Pyrénées

Cité Saint-Pierre, Lourdes (65), point haut, le 12 juin 2024

Four years in a row I have been trying to record wolves. I have been lucky most years but since they have changed rendez-vouz area it took longer than usual this year. Now I have pinpointed where they are and maybe I will get better recording in the coming weeks. This is a perfect time of the year to listen for wolves.

Siggefora. September 5, 2024.
Zoom F3 + Clippy EM272 as tree-ears

Wolves with pups

Northern pygmy owl and friends

Yosemite National Park, CA
2024-09-15

Rancheria Falls 5:49am

LP/DL : https://f-o-m.bandcamp.com/album/musiques-tourbes

Sound artist, instrument builder and field recordist, Diane Barbé makes their return on forms of minutiae with “musiques tourbes”, a weaving of wetland soundscapes and biomimicking synthesis. 

Concerned with interspecies conjunctions while nurturing the planet as a finite verdant space, Diane Barbé plays with experimental music, listening practices and activism to bring attention to delicate environmental phenomena, that, despite their minute size, translate profoundly the effects of the Anthropocene while celebrating the living. Over the last years, in search of sonic signs in the landscape, Barbé followed murmurs in Europe’s wetlands which lead them to the “musiques tourbes” (French for “bog musics”). Musics made of animal rhythms, blown hums, and electronic simulacra that transport us, listeners, with Barbé into the humid zones of the planetary garden. 

With “musiques tourbes” Diane Barbé offers a peculiar map into the bog. A sonic cartography that matches the tentacular sprawl of drifting algae. As listeners, caught between the organic and the electronic, the real and the imagined, we are left with little choice but to forgo our contours and melt into the surprises of these humid zones. Gifted with new planetary garden perspectives, we may begin to sense a possible world. One where listening practices and technology come together to nurture the collective imaginary in an attempt at resetting our environmental norms and reversing the shifting baseline. Field recording is at the core of “musiques tourbes”, yet what ultimately seeps through is an act of field remembering. 

diane barbé – les marécageuses

Pink noise and kite flying

Cannon Beach, OR
2024-09-23

Chapman Beach 7:02pm

On hour without interruption at dawn at the Etang des Landes (Creuse, France). Already many bird species for the season. Water birds, then when the light comes on, a few forest birds. Small mammals rummage through tufts of dry grass near the microphones. In the distance, sometimes, flocks of birds take flight like a low hum.

Recorded on March 9, 2025 with a Nagra LB and a pair of Sennheiser MKH8020 in AB.

One hour at dawn at the Etang des Landes (Creuse, France)

Astor Hall reverb at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Bryant Park
2025-04-04

Astor Hall 3:20pm

Sixteen - seven

La Jolla, San Diego

Trying to capture the sounds and stories of everyday life in spaces around the world.

La Jolla, San Diego

Nigel Anderson

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