Monday, January 10, 2011 at 22:56 tagged environmental 
Just over a year ago, in December 2009, I found out about Katie Paterson’s Ice Records, a wonderful piece of environmental art. It seems like she has been fascinated by ice, and the sound of it, for a longer period of time, as she made Vatnajokull a year before the Ice Records.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 23:08 tagged field recording, soundmaps 
It has been quite a while since we took a look at a soundmap like SoundTransit or Radio Aporee, while more and more of these maps are created around the world. This time I would like to share the SeoulSoundMap project with you.
The campaign is created by the Korean sound art and culture webzine Sound@Media in order to raise awareness of the sonic environment of the city. I it allows us to travel trough the streets of Seoul, in sound, and experience of moment of this huge metropolis. Please try it for yourself.
The SeoulSoundMap is the first urban soundscape project with public participation in Korea. Anyone with a mobile recording device can participate and upload recordings via Audioboo.fm. Visit the Sound@Media website (in Korean, you might want to use Google translate on it) to find out more about their projects.
Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 20:16 tagged field recording, traveling 
Paddling the quiet lakes and breathing the fresh forest air of Sweden was wonderful again this summer. While living in the city I tend to forget how peaceful. Next stop was Berlin, full of people and transportation, and I can hardly think of a bigger sonic contrast between two places.
The Berlin Hauptbahnhof must be one of the busiest spots of the city, flooded with people, day in, day out. With the S-bahn, the U-bahn and national and international trains passing by, there is not a moment of silence, not a minute without a departure. Here is an impression of the station’s ambience:
Photo by Spigoo
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 12:05 tagged field recording, traveling 
It has been a while since I shared the sound of a place I visited in the places category, but now I am in Portimão, I have a good reason to start doing it again! It is remarkably hot and sunny, even for spring in southern Portugal. I never visited this country before, and it is welcoming me with a beautiful blue sky.
Here is what Praça Manuel Teixeira Gomes sounds like on an average Monday morning in spring. It is quite a sonic surprise. While lots of birds sing their song in the olive trees, I pass a cheesy Native American music performance on one side while on the other side the fountains rustle:
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 16:58 tagged architecture, installations This is probably a familiar place for the locals, but believe it or not, I had never heard of the Wave Organ in San Francisco before. The concept of this acoustic sculpture was developed by Peter Richards, and installed in collaboration with George Gonzales.
The construction of the Wave Organ was completed in 1986 and treats visitors to sonic surprises ever since. As the water moves in and out of the pipes as the waves hit, wonderful sounds are generated. It is not loud, and to fully enjoy it visitors need to listen actively.
I think an installation like the Wave Organ demonstrates a great way of creating a sonically pleasant environment by helping nature just a little bit. It subtly adds a sparkle to the sounds of the wind and the waves, which are already beautiful by themselves.
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 23:25 tagged field recording, performance 
If you happen to be in London, visiting Nord Rute must be a great way to spend your weekend. Nord Rute is an ambisonic (surround sound) narrative based on poems by Nils Aslak Valkaeapää, a renowned Sámi artist. His poem No. 272 will be interpreted by Plaid, Sámi poet Synnøve Persen and field recordist Ross Adams.
I would love to experience the Sámi culture, the reindeer migration and the freezing cold of the most nordic part of Europe, in sound. To complete the experience there will be no heating in the venue (the Trinity Buoy Wharf), the audience will be given blindfolds and sit or lie down on reindeer pelts. So bring you sleeping bag and immerse yourself!
Via Joachim Baan
Berlin Based composer and sound artist Andreas Bick made underwater recordings of a frozen lake near Berlin. It is a wonderfully clear recording, made with underwater microphones placed directly under the ice sheet.
It reveals some haunting sounds we will never be able to hear live. If you would not know the source you would probably not guess these sounds are made by frozen water. Visit Andreas' blog Silent Listening and listen to his recordings!
Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 14:26 tagged conceptual art 
For Langjökull, Snæfellsjökull, Solheimajökull, artist Katie Paterson recorded the sound of three glaciers in Iceland. She then pressed these sounds on three records made of the melt water of these three glaciers. Three turn tables played the records for nearly two hours until they completely melted. A sample of one of the records can be heard here.
It seems like the ultimate piece of conceptual art. Next to that it points at present environmental problems like global warming an the perishability of our planet in a beautiful, subtle way.
(via Joachim Baan)
Sound around you is a project by the University of Salford (UK). The goal of the project is to create a sound map of the UK as part of a new study into how sounds in our everyday environment make us feel.
To participate in the project you can record a sound clip with your mobile phone or portable recorder and send it to sound around you website, together with the answer to some questions about the recorded sounds.
An interesting attempt. I wonder if a person living in a busy and noisy city center feels as relaxed as a person living on the countryside. After analysis by 'acoustic scientists' significant findings will be reported on the website.
Friday, August 7, 2009 at 16:56 tagged recording
As I wrote in my previous post, the Swedish lakes are so peaceful, quiet and beautiful. Especially the ones without a lot of motorized boats and far away from busy roads. The only thing you hear while paddling around is yourself, touching the water, and in this case you hear the sound of my breath and my raincoat now and then. It's not so much the sound of the place itself this time, as it was very quiet.
It was a rainy week, luckily we only had a little rain when we were on the water. It took us about five hours to paddle around the island in the middle of the lake. A beautiful, rocky island with lots of wild blueberries, providing a nice dessert to our lunch.
