14

release date: 06 April 2021
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field recordings in Japan 2014

Episode 14 is part one of two presenting long duration sequences of excerpts from field recordings I made in Kyoto Japan between 2015 and 2018.

My field recording practice most often involves a stationary microphone capturing a localised sound-event mesh over a 20-minute duration. I listen under headphones to better immerse my consciousness in the aural experiential field, to sit with the unfolding sound-happening and to listen into the sonic particularities of each chosen place. Infrequently, I wander with the microphone to carry the point of aural capture through the sound world.

This series of examples – best heard under headphones – carries the listener through diverse sonic encounters in Kyoto. Most are relatively brief, and there is strategic switching from source to source, akin to flipping through a large format book of photography. For listeners who have visited Kyoto or Japan, many of these sources will perhaps be familiar and trigger memories.

Kyoto has a surprising abundance of water, and sounds made by water permeate the city and its cultural identity. My Kyoto sound montages are punctuated by watery codas that return the visitor again and again to this signature presence.