Thanks for your recording and your words.

A peaceful soundscape that conveys much. Thank you. About the (ignorant) mis-management of forests with respect to natural fire cycles, the same thing has happened in many parts of Australia where forest land has been converted to national park (often after being taken over from pastoral leases of formerly indigenous land). It's well-known that the nomadic indigenous peoples understood the fire cycles and developed fire-management strategies over thousands of years. In some places, when colonial pastoralists took over the forests, some of them learned from the indigenous inhabitants, who often ended up working for them, about the value of seasonal burning off. (FYI https://www.klc.org.au/indigenous-fire-management.) But when the forests were later recognised as national parks, fires were feared, and understory fuel load piled high. This led to many catastrophic bushfires, and much (probably irreversible) damage. But all of this is also being complicated by rapid radical climate change.

Gorgeous recording, thank you for sharing Andy :D

12min - 0415am, First Light
12-54 min - 0415-0457, DAWN
54min - 0457am, Sunrise

Large wildfires are once again uncontrollably threatening much of the intermountain west in North America. Just 5 miles/ 8 km from the oncoming edge of the Cub Creek fire here in Washington is one of my most favorite places to record  anywhere. Thirtymile Meadows is one of the very few places I know of in the continuous 48 United States that is neither rainforest nor remote island where I can set up my microphones, press record, and expect a soundscape free of human-generated noise for at least 4 hours to be the result. Sometimes it can be up to nearly a day.
This was a little more than a month ago, the morning of Summer Solstice. It’s merely an excerpt.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to record there again, at least not a soundscape such as this, filled with birdsong. It’s highly likely my next trip with be filled with the whistling winds that wind around burned snags, the creaking of swaying barren trunks, perhaps the snapping and falling of dead wood.

Stands up on soapbox:
These forests depend upon fire for their very survival, but the rejuvenating fire that feeds their growth is low-level, fuel-consuming, and under-story burning. It cracks open seeds for hardy conifers. It clears room for new seedlings. It brings down larger diseased trees, returning their nutrients to the soil.
The fires we see raging now are not those fires.
For decades we have managed these forests by preventing fire without clearing the accumulating fuels. In the effort to keep “timber stock” available for logging and to protect the encroaching human settlements, all fire is suppressed. Weakened and dried by the advancement of climate change, trees age without replacement while dense, dry growth builds up beneath.
A simple spark (a lightning strike, an untended campfire, the hot under-carriage of a vehicle, a cigarette butt) is all that is needed to start a conflagration that does not clear and rejuvenate, but destroys.
With both the understory and tree cover gone, the ground becomes loose and rocky. The Autumn rains, Winter snows, and Spring melts wash away the fertile soils that nurse future growth.
We lose forest, and it doesn’t grow back. Not all of it. The interiors are safe for now, and can slowly re-grow over the ensuing decades if left un-molested. The edges are gone, however, and each successive fire and monsoon season scales them back farther.
Thirtymile Meadows is at a unique interface of interior, edge, and wet meadow. The meadow will survive, as should the deep forest to its Northeast. The Southwest edge, though, will disappear if the Cub Creek Fire reaches it. Already scarred by human-caused fires nearly twenty years ago, the Southern edge is dry, fuel-filled, and loose.

I don’t have an answer. I don’t have a plan. I just want to make people aware.

I also want to share the beauty of soundscapes that are in danger of disappearing, whether from noise pollution or ecosystem loss.

2021 - 06 - 21 ThirtymileMeadows Across The Dawn

The online meetings we have all become accustomed to are often accompanied by the experience
of being distracted and drifting off into daydreams. In this piece, you will take part in a journey into
the mind of a host in an online meeting with multiple participants. You will hear how the ringing of
a phone, a car horn, or a glitch in the online stream trigger an irresistible sonic journey in which all
these events dissolve and abandon their old meaning to form new sound worlds that emerge from
their material.

Commissioned by Electric Audio Unit

DAYDREAMING (excerpt, Binaural)

It's cool to release on Seil Records because, first and foremost, I'm a huge fan of the label. There have been so many beautiful albums over years it's an honour to join the long list of artists who've contributed to the series.

I wanted to put together a mix to showcase some of releases that mean a lot to me and, although it was impossible to include everything, I hope this captures the essence of how I feel about the label.

So sit back and enjoy this hour of classics from Seil.

All the releases are available on Bandcamp, please support the artists if you can.
https://seilrecords.bandcamp.com

Tracklist:
Hiroshi Ebina - Whiteout (If There's Any Tinge In this World)
IDRA - Water and rust (Duet)
Thme - A.M's Alps (Red roses are red now)
Andrew Tasselmyer - Forgotten Futures (Yesteryear)
ambalek - Dark Pines Beachen Leaves (Fremder)
KMRU - time of day (Jar)
The Lifted Index - Pine Snag (Sanctuary)
Hainbach - Translucent (with Jeremy Blake) (Home Stories)
Scott Campbell - Meander Belt (Quiet Rituals)
Sofie Birch - Begin Sync End (Planetes)
Tunnelwater - The Lookout (Floating Weeds)
morimoto naoki - reo (sui)
Paperbark - Feeling of Fate (Inhaling Mist)
r beny - Across Rock, Under Sky (Reasons To Live)
Jogging House - Wrongs (Weight)

My new album 'Distance' is out now on Seil, you can find it here
https://fieldswefound.bandcamp.com/album/distance

Much Love

Fields We Found

Fields We Found 'Watching The Skies' Mix (Seil Records showcase)

Once again, we’re excited to unveil another Polaroid Notes release, the fourth album by this Germany based artist in our discography. Alongside his side-project as Kraut Sounds, editions have also appeared on labels such as Büro Für Erdrotation, Weber & Alcantu and his own label Drone Works International.

In this latest edition ‘Cloud Anthems’, the music takes influence from the packaging photography, which was taken by the artist one sunny January at the Riegsee, a small lake in front of the Bavarian Alps. The entire lake had frozen over due to low temperatures in the weeks before. Later that afternoon fog rolled in and together with the sun, the frozen lake and leafless trees made a wonderful contrast. The whole scenario lasted only a few minutes before everything disappeared into the clouds of dense fog. As beautiful as the whole day was, those few moments were something very special to behold.

Polaroid Notes enjoys these contrasts, both in nature and in music too. ‘Cloud Anthems’ is a series of unique contrasts that harmonise perfectly, remaining in mind for a while after they have passed. Piano sounds and loops interact with flashes of harsh energy and strange experimental sounds from old analog synthesizers. A particular focus for this record is the VCS3 synthesiser, a portable synth from the late 60s; whilst a digital replica was used here, the artist found this to be the perfect way to express the themes for this record. Sounds and melodies flow into each other spontaneously like colours of an abstract painting, layer by layer.

Credits:
Written and produced by Polaroid Notes
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong
Photography by Polaroid Notes
Art and design by Andrew Heath

Cloud Anthems

wlr123 Polaroid Notes - Cloud Anthems

Long-time collaborator Marco Lucchi provides sublime, longform pieces (most 15+ minutes), which Henrik has carefully imbued with his cello.

ambientologist.bandcamp.com/album/suggestiva

Featuring artwork from Luca Lionello, it touches on ancient mystic ideas and sentiment, attempting the impossible task of touching the sublime through art.

Suggestiva

CD & Download

Marco Lucchi & Henrik Meierkord - Mornings (Streaming Edit)

Tracklist

01. Jens Pauly - Ohne
02. Tunnelwater - Second Spring
03. FernLodge -  Leave Some Day
04. Tone Color - Hera
05. Chronovalve - Together With You
06. Fields We Found - View
07. Thme - Sirens
08. Federico Mosconi - Sottovoce
09. Szymon Kaliski - And Belong
10. Betts(JP) - Yosde 04
11. Dudal - I'm No Longer Found
12. Ian Hawgood - Momo Koen

303. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Tracklist

01. Tomáš Šenkyřík - Noc
02. Monogoto - Seedling (deletion 14)
03. Simon McCorry - Tides
04. Stijn Hüwels - Horizon (edit)
05. KMRU - Other Times
06. Glacis - Somehow I Feel More Shaken
07. Sonmi451 - Lying Dormant And Forgotten
08. Sachi Kobayashi - More Than Just A Dream - 09 Blur (Hilyard remix)

307. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Tracklist

01. Hummingbird - West
02. 't Geruis - Nimf
03. Darren McClure - Joseph Valentino - Glass Arrows
04. Andrew Tasselmyer - Our Own Private Libraries
05. Adrian Lane - Glimpses Of Winter Sun
06. Arovane - Reihen
07. Asuna + Tomoyoshi Date + Federico Durand -  On the shore of the stray pond
08. Ben Rath - Awaken
09. Samuel Regan - Bright Air, Brilliant Fire

315. Sleepy Sunday Podcast (Elm Records)

Album samplers of our releases in 2023 from Fields We Found, ghost and tape, Federico Durand, Stefano Guzzetti, Stijn Hüwels and Wil Bolton.

homen145 ghost and tape - Freeform (album sampler)

this is a very similar patch as Untitled VI, except that now there are three voices instead of one: SMR, piston honda (which is also in the rosie efx loop from time to time, which is a bad habit/crutch that i lean on way too often) and e350. SMR is droning and fluttering into clouds, while the piston honda and e350 are both hitting an optomix before going into rings for some reverb. there is also a field recording churning in the background inside the disting, which i am randomly and manually controlling the playback speed on. 

i could listen to this for hours (and did)

Untitled VII

A new 5 track mini album released on Hibernate Recordings.
https://hibernate.bandcamp.com/album/nia

Charitable fundraising has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 so as part of #TwoPointSixChallenge we plan to release 26 free download/pay as much as you can afford Ep or albums on Hibernate Bandcamp page over the coming weeks. 100% income being donated to charities. All proceeds from this EP go to Medicins Sans Frontiers.

blochemy - Nia (Hibernate) Sampler

Field Recordist / Sound designer
Shhhhh. Listening to nature.

To license sounds or for all other inquiries: info@andymartinsound.com

#naturesound #naturesoundscape #fieldrecording #naturesounds #savequiet #listentonature #soundscape

2021 - 06 - 21 ThirtymileMeadows Across The Dawn

Andy Martin, Field Recordist

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