In the morning of the last day of July, as I was about to enter the main door of an aged care nursing  home, I had to stop and step aside to make way respectfully for a trolley bearing a deceased person draped completely with deep red cloth. I do not know who they were - their name, gender, nationality, story... The body was borne into a nondescript white van.

Later, that evening, while editing and composing some field recordings for a quite different work, this particular conjunction of layers happened to align  itself, as if of its own accord, and I recalled my meeting with an unseen deceased body, neatly draped in deep red cloth, earlier that day. For that person, for every such person, I wanted to offer this sound-parable, as an aesthetic gesture of respect, mourning, but also of celebration, a confident casting and sowing of thoughts towards the all-encompassing horizon of infinity.

"Among the Seven Wise Women, one woman said, 'Sisters, you and I should not go to scenic parks to partake of worldly entertainments... Instead, let's go together to enjoy the charnel grounds.' The other women said, 'That place is full of decaying corpses. What is such a place good for?' The first woman said, 'Sisters, just go. Very good things are there.' When they arrived in the forest, the woman pointed to a corpse and said to the other women, 'The corpse is here; where has the person gone?' The women witnessed the truth and realized the way." (Dōgen's Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Kōroku, translated by Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura, Boston: Wisdom Publications 2004, p. 120)

@ Bandcamp

2021.08.01 Parable the Second: Passage. (Παραβολὴ ἡ Δεύτερη• Πέρασμα.)

Part of a hydrophone recording I made next to an old barge at Ierapetra's port.

Ierapetra Port, Hydrophone Next To Old Barge

High-voltage pole near the railroad tracks. Recorded with LOM Geofón and MixPre3.

Railroad Drone

02-01-2022, Poznań, ul. Botaniczna   16:01

2 stycznia ul. Botaniczna

Ceiling Lights

One half of a short EP called 'Dockside', the entirety of which can be heard/downloaded at https://mola-recordings.bandcamp.com/album/dockside-2

Bridgelift Blue

This is an edited excerpt from an overnight to morning recording made at the shore of the Coorong saltwater lagoon, for anyone who might be curious to dip in and get a taste of one way a Coorong dawn might sound, and how it did sound on this particular morning. The microphones were placed in amongst reeds near the tip of the point of land jutting out into the water, which can be seen in the track photo. This excerpt begins from around 06:25 (ACDT). Calm, cool weather conditions, with considerable condensation.

I've come to the conclusion that listening to recordings - and especially raw, unprocessed recordings - of the Coorong environment may be an acquired taste (although the taste may be acquired from a familiarity with other coastal environments and ecosystems with a similar kind of soundscape). The incessant 
 'Coorong roar' takes some getting used to, particularly when heard through headphones. It took me a long time to accept it and immerse myself in it; but eventually I found that other much quieter but higher-pitched natural details - like the calls of birds, and even the sounds of their interactions with the water of the lagoon and the air itself as they wing through it - can still be quite clearly discerned within the soundspace, without the aid of low frequency attenuation. The adjustment in my attention was more effective than an adjustment in EQ.* (A special thank you to Jan Eerala for helping to catalyse this intuition and shift in my perception (although it only works for natural sounds, of course).)

96/32 > 48/24. Edited excerpt, not processed.

Recorded on land of the Ngarrindjeri people that is now a national park.
_______________________
*Having said that, though, there are still situations in which I will use EQ for certain Coorong recordings: for example, when the subject is a specific detail, rather than the experience of the soundscape or soundfield as an integral whole.

2022.02.20 A Coorong Dawn. Waterline. Late Summer.

"Tuba Mirum" is a part of the "Dies Irae", a Latin poetic sequence used in Anglican and Catholic liturgies, especially the Requiem Mass.

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Tuba Mirum

Sometime after 8 am on a windy wintery Saturday morning, in a national park, around 1.7 kilometres from the coastline and about 180 metres above sea level. This track comprises two different recordings that happen to include one and the same event as heard/recorded from two different locations, by two different field recording rigs: one at a distance, the other close at hand. The first rig was unattended, embedded overnight amongst native trees and bushes (cardioids in ORTF). The microphone axis was pointing in the directly opposite direction away from where the incident occurred. The second rig was portable (supercardioids in AB), being used to pick out particular soundscape details, here and there, at some distance from the first rig.

00:00:00. Recording 1: Extreme Long Shot
00:01:06. Trail bike approaching
00:02:54. Trail bike engine turned off
00:03:25. Trail bike engine turned back on, trail bike leaves
00:05:09. Trail bike out of earshot
00:06:01. End of Recording 1

00:06:05. Recording 2: Medium Close Up
00:06:46. Trail bike approaching
00:08:19. Trail bike engine turned off
00:09:11. Trail bike engine turned back on, trail bike leaves
00:11:01. Trail bike out of earshot
00:11:44. End of Recording 2

Recorded on the land of the Ngarrindjeri peoples.

2023.07.15 "You Can't Ride a Trail Bike through Here" (Long Shot And Close Up). Winter Morning.

2024-06-19

Krótkie nagranie dokonane nad jeziorem Gościąż położonym na terenie Gostynińsko-Włocławskiego Parku Krajobrazowego.
Jezioro jest unikalne w skali Europy ze względu na nienaruszone osady denne gromadzone na przestrzeni 13 000 lat. Objęte jest ścisłą ochroną.

Audio Technica BP4025
Zoom F3

Jezioro Gościąż/Gościąż Lake

[PL, EN below]
Przy okazji urlopu w Tatrach odwiedziliśmy też Zakopane. Okazuje się, że przy Sanktuarium Najświętszej Rodziny jest całoroczna ruchoma szokpa. Po wrzuceniu monety do skarbony rusza mechanizm, nagrany głos mówi "Bóg zapłać" głosem dziecka i - co interesujące - na początku dodatkowo raz głosem dorosłego mężczyzny. Czyżby to ktoś znamienity?
Bardzo lubię wszystkie dźwięki wynikające z ruchomości ruchomej szopki. Piszczące taśmy niosące lalki, stukające siekierki lalek udających rąbanie drzewa, szum mechanizmu. Zawsze żal mi, że ktoś podejmuje decyzję, żeby odtworzyć też z wątpliwej jakości głośniczka jakieś kolędy wykrzykiwane przez bandę dzieci. Ale może to konieczny element uroku.

[EN]
During our holiday in the Tatra Mountains, we also visited Zakopane. It turns out that there is a year-round mechanical nativity scene at the Holy Family Church. After inserting a coin into the money box, the mechanism starts and the recorded voice says "God bless you" in the voice of a child and - interestingly - at the beginning, once again in the voice of an adult man. Could it be someone famous?
I really like all the sounds resulting from the movement of the mechanical nativity scene. Squeaking belts carrying dolls, clacking axes of dolls pretending to chop wood, the hum of machinery. I always feel disappointed that decided to play Christmas carols shouted out by a bunch of children from a loudspeaker of questionable quality. But maybe that's a necessary part of the charm.


10/05/2024, 19:44
49.29667, 19.95063
iPhone 7

Ruchoma szopka - Zakopane - Bóg zapłać / Mechanical nativity scene - Zakopane - God bless you

Tired of being bombarded with visual images all the time, I turn myself to the sense of hearing. I invite you to listen to the world with me.
https://tomaszpizio.bandcamp.com

Ruchoma szopka - Zakopane - Bóg zapłać / Mechanical nativity scene - Zakopane - God bless you

Tomasz Pizio

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