I put the zoom into a hole on the side of this metal buoy out on Rosses Point to see if the ocean would sound any different.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 189 - The Ocean From Inside The Metal Buoy - 8 July 2013

Tin foil blowing in the wind at Echnam in Antwerpen.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 199 - Tin Foil In The Wind At Echnum - 18 July 2013

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 204 - Walking On The Stones At Folkestone Beach - 23 July 2013

I've returned to the local Aeolian Harps that sit on the banks of the River Shannon in Carrick on Shannon.  The harps were designed by the very brilliant Mark Garry and play droney sounds as the wind hits them.  Each time I visit they sound different and sometimes on calm days they don't sound like anything at all but I guess that's their charm!

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 213 - Aeolian Wind Harps In Carrick On Shannon Part 2 - 1 August 2013

Out on deck with the ferry announcement is spooky.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 286 - The Ferry Sounds Like A Ray Bradbury Novel - 13 Oct 2013

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 288 - Crunching Through The Autumn Leaves - 15 October 2013

Ciaran shaving off the wood for the Bullroarer workshop at this weekend's Hunters Moon Festival!

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 298 - Belt Sander Vs Bullroarer - 25 October 2013

Out on the beach in Brighton, a fellow with a rake was making symmetrical shapes out of the stones.  It was nice.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 315 - Man Raking Stones Into Patterns Brighton Beach - 11 November 2013

My bedroom used to be the room where the hot water pipes run in and out of and I used to fall asleep listening to this sound.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 325 - Lull And Drone Of Hot Water In The Pipes - 21 November 2013

There have been times when people have gotten completely spooked walking home from our house at night.  Once, when two friends were walking together, one suddenly took off running.  Later he said he'd thought something was cracking twigs in the woods.  A guy who used to live with us, anytime he would drink whiskey and end up outside at night would swear that there were evil leprechauns living in the trees.  And a few months ago a friend was riding his bike about the mile back to his house and thought at some point that someone was running alongside him.  Maybe our lane gets people so spooked because there's nothing around, only forest edging up to the road.  Or maybe there's really things in the woods.....Moo ha ha ha ha ha.........But I like getting spooked and I like walking at night.  This night, all other sounds were still.  Just the sound of walking.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 335 - Walking The Dead Still Night - 1 December 2013

When I was a kid, we'd leave the house every Sunday at the break of dawn to head to the flea market in the old drive-in movie theater.  It was always full of bargains and wing nuts.  I don't know which one I loved more.  
Now there's a car boot on a Sunday about ten minutes from my house and though it's not too often I find anything to buy, I'm always finding wingnuts!  The guy in this audio selection had a large tarp on the ground which seemed to be vomited upon by the Scrap Metal monster.  I don't really know what he was selling but at the end of the day he made his son go get a shovel and shovel up all the bits of rusty tools and odds and ends into a plastic container.  Major wingnuttery.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 336 - Metal Shoveler At The Car Boot Sale - 2 December 2013

Selections from a daily field recording sound diary.  Rebroadcast in 2019 on Dublin Digital Radio at 12 and 6.  Just like the angelus.

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary 47 - 16 February - Water Lapping At The Edge Of Loch Ree

Everyday this year at 12 & 6 ( like the angelus) @DublinDigiRadio is broadcasting my daily Sunken Hum #sounddiary of 2 min #fieldrecordings taken from my day to day. You can read more about it here: 

https://listen.dublindigitalradio.com/editorial?id=5c50bb28f8bfca0014b6982e

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary 50 - Hannah The Pig Gets Some Apples

Daily sound of the Sunken Hum Sound Diary

Today it's the sound of all the frogs getting excited in the big pond.

Rebraodcast on Dublin Digital Radio.

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary 66 - The BIG Frog Sexy - 7 March

Sounds from the Sunken Hum Sound Diary.  Rebroadcast Daily on DublinDigital Radio at 12 and 6. 

https://listen.dublindigitalradio.com/

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 89 - Up at the Caves of Kesh - 30 March

While Mike Gangloff plays the Walls of Jericho on the fiddle in the old Gulp'd in the Triskel County Cork, a late night reveller keeps his own company in the lobby.

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary 94 - A Man Keeping His Own Company And The Walls Of Jericho

The water coming into the shrine at St. Brigids in Clare.

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary 268 - St Brigids Well And Shrine Clare

Chickens come and chickens go. Tuftee the chick came to us together with 24 other ex-battery hens.  We called her Tuftee partially because she only had little tufts of feathers from being at the very bottom of the pecking order but also because she was one tuff chicken.  Her and the useless Cockerel named Rambo were the sole survivors of a late night suspected fox massacre that in one fowl swoop, ended the lives of all of the hens that had tormented her.  After that, Tuftee and Rambo lived together quietly and amiably for several more years.  Though I didn't know it while making this recording in the evening time, this would be Tuftee's last meal.  We'd find her in the morning, peaceful and still.

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary 344 - Last Meal For The Lone Chicken

After the waves crash out on the beach, the foams recedes in what sounds like a hiss back into the ocean.  

For today's broadcast of The Sunken Hum, I got down right next to the water and tried to capture as much of the hissing foam sound as possible.  I did this late at night so the usual crowd of bathing beauties had long gone off.  What sound diary of a trip to the beach would be complete without at least one sound clip of the ocean itself?

I used my Zoom H4 with a Redhead Windscreen to block the night's light breeze.

For more of The Sunken Hum you can find me on tumblr:
http://thesunkenhum.tumblr.com/

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 4 - Hissing Foam of the Ocean on Sunny Isles Beach, Miami - 4 January 2013

This is the last day of my spending time with my mom for awhile so I decided to record a chunk of our evening stroll.  I've got a theory that there's a different voice parents use when talking to their kids, a certain something that isn't there when they're talking to other people.

For those of you that don't speak Russian, my mom is telling me how she plans to spend her days when she retires.

This is recording number 7 of The Sunken Hum, my daily sound diary for 2013. 

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 7 - Walking and Talking with my Mom - 7 January 2013

Every night when I laid down to go to sleep in Florida, I could constantly hear this hum in my ears.  It felt like the endless sounds around me just keep circularly buzzing through my hearing...sounds of traffic, neighbours washing dishes, people chattering.

This is a mix of two main sounds that were on the daily listening menu during my stay.  One is the pulsating drone of a huge piece of machinary about a block away which looked like a Godzilla sized screw that was getting drilled into the ground to begin the building of a new skyscraper (aka The Earth Eater).  The other is the squeak and tweat of a neighbour's bird (parakeet?) that's maybe thirty feet away from the recorder (The Songbird).

This is Broadcast Number 8 of the Sunken Hum Sonddiary 2013.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 8 - The Earth Eater and the Songbird - 8 January 2013

It was a very icey night in Drumshanbo last night.  As the session roared away inside the house, we stood in the -4 degree, special brand of Irish country cold to discuss plans of sailing to Islay for some proper Whiskey tasting.  Paddy lists the options for getting there by sea while Conor strums his ever present banjo.

This is the 13th Broadcast of The Sunken Hum - my sound diary project for 2013 where I daily upload a new two minute soundclip taken from the day before.  

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 13 - Paddy talks Speedboats as Conor Strums the Banjo - 13 January 2013

Perched on the line between counties Leitrim and Roscommon is a Sluice gate where the water rumbles from Lough Allen into the River Shannon at Ballintra.  When the ESB first started using these Sluice gates is when they first realized there were dwellings on the crannogs out in the lake.  

This is a noise and a rumble.  For anyone who used to go to Leechrum Festival.  This was the bridge you would cross to get there.  

The Sunken Hum is my daily sound project for 2013.  This is broadcast number 17.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 17 - Lough Allen Roars into the River Shannon at the Sluice Gates - 17 Jan

I'm not sure what it is exactly, but there's something about the sound of potatoes being peeled that makes me feel like I'm watching a horror flick.  Maybe it's the slow methodical clinking of the knife against the skin.  And then there's the strange wet crunch aswell.

This is the sound of last night's prelude to dinner.

This is the 21st Broadcast of The Sunken Hum, my daily sound diary project for 2013.



The Sunken Hum Broadcast 21 - The Sinister Sound of Peeling Potatoes - 21 January 2013

Things got strange last night as some Traditional Irish Throat Singing kicked off in the pub.

The is the 31st Broadcast of The Sunken Hum Sound Diary for 2013.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 31 - Traditional Irish Throat Singing - 31 January

I kept finding myself totally zoning out everytime I went to the ladies toilets at the pool in Carrick.  Finally I realized it was the loud droning sound of the air filter machine that is installed in there.  Here it is, the deep medatative drone of the filtering air.

This is the 37th Broadcast of The Sunken Hum, my daily sound diary for 2013.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 37 - Deep Drone in the Ladies Toilets at the Pool - 6 February 2013

Yesterday was band practice day. We were writing a drone to layer beneath another recording. Here's a two minute chunk from a fifteen minute acoustic improv. Symbal, Guitar, Cümbüş, and two bows.

Thanks Aonghus and Willie for not minding me putting this up.

This is the 41st Broadcast of The Sunken Hum, my daily sound diary for 2013.


The Sunken Hum Broadcast 41 - Bowing Drones - 10 February 2013

Walking through the exhibition at La Reina Sofia Museo.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 69 - Scifi Sounds at La Reina Sofia Museo Madrid - 10 March 2013

The sounds of fat raindrops as they burst against Tuborg cans beside the wood shed. 



The Sunken Hum Broadcast 73 - Rain Dripping on Beer Cans - 14 March 2013

Took a stroll down to the ole' evening cattle mart in Drumshanbo.  The auctioneers voice is like a meditative chant or a call to pray.  I had never been to the mart before and soon noticed I was the only gal in the building (until the very end when a very well dressed nine year old mini-farmer came in with her dad).

We sat and watched this fella auctioning cattle for about an hour and he didn't stop going once.  The whole time he does his chant his leg beats up and down to the rhythm of his voice.  Eventually I felt like getting up and doing a little dance.  But I constrained myself.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 75 - The Meditative Sounds of The Drumshanbo Cattle Mart - 16 March 2013

After a swim in the pond there's nothing like a sizzling campfire.

The Sunken Hum Broadcast 161 - Becky's Sizzling Campfire - 10 June 2013

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary: a field recording/sound archive project in 365 parts.

Each and everyday in 2013, I recorded two minutes of sounds from my daily life.  And then, for 365 days in a row, I published the sounds to the internet to share with the world.  


I embarked on this phonographic archive with a voyeuristic curiosity that stemmed from a fascination with how humans  routinely spend their time and with an intrigue into the regular, recurring noises that makes up the soundscape of life. I figured the easiest way to satiate this curiosity was by dissecting my own typical day and doumenting the sounds that routinely weave themselves through my surroundings.  The diary includes everything from solitary chickens singing laments to cattlemart auctioneers chanting the call of farm life to potatoes rumbling as they boxxed in the boiling hot waterpot.  A selection from these daily recordings are shared here.

Capturing the recordings became a meditative practice.  No matter what the chaos of life that was happening around me, for two minutes I could escape into a reality reimagined through headphones.  It was like a peculiar removal from the existing moment.  While the sound of the world became heightened (and nearly more alive) through the headphones, I felt simultaneously disconnected from the present, having become more an observer than a participant.  

In 2019, dublin digital radio (ddr) rebroadcast the diary recordings at 12 pm and 6 pm everyday.  These are the same times at which the Angelus Bell is played for one minute on Irish radio. This is a religious broadcast.  Though I love the idea behind the Angelus (a minute long sound meditation), it is time to separate this meditative moment from anything to do with organised religion.  Instead, I'd love to suggest that we give that moment over to the field recordists of Ireland and let them create a daily one minute broadcast that features the myriad of meditative sounds of the island.  Come on RTE, sure why not?!

The Sunken Hum Sound Diary

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