Field recordings and soundscapes do much more than reflect the sounds of nature. They also delve into local culture and artificial sound environments; they serve as travelogues, historical statements, and calls to political action. An environment once captured is never the same, and some are disappearing.

An exemplary field recording captures a specific place lodged in a fragment of time. An exemplary soundscape edits sources to tell a larger story, opening a window to let the light in. Each sub-genre serves as reflection and metaphor. When combined, the ten releases on this list offer a fine cross-section of sound that is available in the outer world as well, if only we would listen.

And now, in alphabetical order, A Closer Listen presents the Top Ten Field Recording and Soundscape Releases of 2014.

Chris Silver T ~ Salty Spots (Impulsive Habitat)
A simple idea becomes an elegant meditation on memory as…

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Discovers, YouTube

FEMINATRONIC DISCOVERS – BLEVIN BLECTUM

February 19, 2015 Feminatronic

A recommendation is to listen to this through headphones : )

Uncategorized

PoL # 13 Audient

February 17, 2015 Feminatronic

Hope I am not too late to reblog this : /

Points of Listening

With Viv Corringham
Date: Wednesday 11th March 2015
Time: 18:30
Venue: GV Art London, W1U 6LY Directions
Free but spaces are limited. To book please email: markpeterwright@gmail.com

Audient (adjective) listening; paying attention

This session will be a collaborative sound making performance, created by the participants. There will be no fixed audience; each of us will shift between the two roles of performer and audience, aiming to spend as much time listening as playing. We will move freely around the gallery between the four rooms and stairs. Each of these five areas will contain a one-word written instruction to the performers as a focus for improvisation and in order to create five distinct sound worlds. Those in the role of audience are encouraged to respond to the music with a word, phrase or drawing. These documents will then become instructions for the next performers in that space. In this way, during…

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21.11. // Tipp Berlin: Die RAW CHICKS Reihe feiert Zweijähriges

February 17, 2015 Feminatronic

My German is rusty but a few clicks and I finding another interesting artist

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Seth Kim-Cohen

February 17, 2015 Feminatronic

Really interesting reading and worth being side-tracked from other things

EAR ROOM

Seth Kim-Cohen is an artist, musician and critic. He is currently a full-time visiting artist at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He has presented artworks at venues spanning the cultural spectrum from CBGBs to Tate Modern. His writing has been published in magazines, newspapers, and journals in Europe, the U.K. and the U.S. He is the author of In The Blink of an Ear: Toward a Non-Cochlear Sonic Art, Continuum, 2009 and One Reason To Live: Conversations About Music, Errant Bodies, 2006. His latest book, Against Ambience is published by Bloomsbury. He also blogs at Voice of Broken Neck. For comprehensive info visit: www.kim-cohen.com
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ER. We’re here primarily to talk about your new book Against Ambience, can you briefly outline some of its main themes/topics.

SKC. Against Ambience is an example of an endangered species – a book of good…

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February 17, 2015 Feminatronic

Todays Discovery…

Elisa Luu

“Enchanting Gaze” (3rd November, 2014) from Italian ambient electronica artist Elisa Luu. The album is released through La bèl netlabel in collaboration with Hidden Shoal.

Download the first single from the album here: labelnetlabel.bandcamp.com/

Read more about Elisa Luu here: hiddenshoal.com/project/elisa-luu/

First track lifted from the forthcoming Elisa Luu mini-album “Enchanting Gaze”. The album is released through La bèl netlabel in collaboration with Hidden Shoal on the 3rd of November 2014.

More on Elisa Luu here – www.hiddenshoal.com/project/elisa-luu/

This music is available for licensing. Email Cam at Hidden Shoal for more details: cam[@]hiddenshoal.com

Elisa Luu (Elisabetta Luciani) is a Rome based composer. She begins her music career as a saxophone player, moving freely from fusion to jazz. Elisa Luu has been involved in many music projects over the years, including fusion quartet Prodotti Speciali and Short’s Monday Night Jazz Orchestra. She participated to Berklee Jazz clinics where she got a…

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The Hell, the High Water, and the Funk of It All: Sounding Power in Scandal

February 17, 2015 Feminatronic

Sounding Out!

Editor’s Note: Here’s installment #3 of Sounding Out!‘s blog forum on gender and voice! Last week I talked about what it meant to have people call me, a woman of color, “loud.” The week before that we hosted Christine Ehrick‘s selections from her forthcoming book; she introduced us to the idea of the gendered soundscape, which she uses in her analysis on women’s radio speech from the 1930s to the 1950s. In the next few weeks we’ll have A.O. Roberts with synthesized voices and gender, Art Blake with his reflections on how his experience shifting his voice from feminine to masculine as a transgender man intersects with his work on John Cage, and lastly Robin James with an analysis of how ideas of what women should sound like have roots in Greek philosophy.

This week regular writer Regina Bradley puts the soundtrack of Scandal in conversation with the agency of…

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News, Web Focus

JAZZ NORTH EAST – WOMEN MAKE MUSIC

February 16, 2015 Feminatronic

As Jazz North East explain the theremin has not been the instrument of choice for Jazz music creation but Beatrix Ward – Fernandez has seen the potential for Jazz expression. Also on the programme is Zoe Gilby who combines vocals with electronic effects. Should be a very interesting event.

Details here at the Jazz North East site

Bandcamp, Discovers

FEMINATRONIC DISCOVERS – RENA JONES

February 16, 2015 Feminatronic

RENA JONES

Uncategorized

Musical Fast

February 16, 2015 Feminatronic

Music, however it is classified, is so hard to get away from but this is an interesting idea that Feminatronic will be following.

The Sound Blog

Giving up music for Lent seemed like a interesting thing to try, but as the days countdown to the start on Ash Wednesday, I’ve become to realise how difficult and inconvenient this is going to be. I did a silent retreat a couple of years ago as part of my research for Sonic Wonderland, but that involved going away to a Buddhist centre where intrusion could be avoid. My fasting from music is going to have to take place while I carry on my normal life as best as possible.

I will be presenting a BBC Radio 4 documentary about my experiences that will be broadcast on the 16th of March. I will be exploring how ubiquitous music has become in modern society and investigating what effects this widespread consumption of music has on us. As part of planning the programme, my producer Nick has sent me a list of places where I…

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