Opus for power line, bass, wind and birds.

It is not every day when I am free from traffic noise. But when it happens it is possible to notice other small sounds in the surroundings. That happened in beginning of June 2012 when I was at Krossholt at Barðastönd, in the northwest of Iceland. One night someone was playing loud music in the neighborhood. The rumbling bass beat was noticeable all night along. During the night the wind started to blow from east with strong gusts. Suddenly nearby power line started to give a strange sound and the niggling beat from the neighborhood started to be interesting. In combination with the wind, power line, birdsong from the field and nearby cliff it started to be like a music from other planet. In fact it was a really interesting composition. Better than many modern human made compositions today. The intro is more than two minutes long, so just lay back in your chair, relax and listen. High quality headphones are recommended.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 34,7Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net

Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (24bit/48Khz)
Mics: Rode NT1a. NOS setup.
Pix: Canon 30D
Interesting link: Wired Lab

White Wagtail in the wind

I and my family spent a bank holiday last weekend in May in Union´s vacation house at Apavatn in south Iceland. The weather was typical for spring. Sunny, but cold and windy.
This was not exactly the best weather to record bird song, or “nice spring mood”, but when I placed the microphones not far away from the house, a White Wagtail gave me a nice tweet as a professional singer close to the microphones.
Not far away was a playground with big trampoline. Most of the background sound is the drumming sound from this trampoline, screaming children and waves from the lake. Through the all recording a weak tweet sound is coming from young bird in nearby nest.
In the end of the recording people are gathering together in a hot tub.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 24,6mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net      

Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mic: Rode NT2a in spaced omni (60cm AB setup )
Pix: Canon 30D (see more picture)

Accordion day 5th of May 2012

Accordion day was celebrated all over in Iceland 5th of May with concerts in many public places all over the country. This was a perfect opportunity to cycle downtown and record a “squeeze box concert”. The concert was held in an open place at Hallærisplan (Ingólfstorg) in Reykjavik center and the players were members of the Reykjavik Accordion Club. In background, mostly on right side, are some bang and rumble noise from skate boards and motorcycles.
This recording was made with “binaural microphones” and Primo EM172 capsules.  There were rather much wind which sometimes disturbed the recording. So -20db was enabled at 20hz  in post.
Best to listen with headphones.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 24,2Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net    

Recoder: Olympus LS10 (24hz/48Khz)
Mic. Binaural (Primo EM172)
Pix: Sony DSC-P120

Free Tibet

In April 2012 the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao, visited Iceland.
On the first day he was driven to the Musical Hall to have a dinner.
On Facebook, people were encouraged to go there and request for free Tibet. I arrived rather late, but right at time when the prime ministers arrived with a lot of security staff on cars and motorcycles.
This recording was a “wind test” for my home made binaural mics with Primo EM 172 capsules. I put them in Rode WS5 foam and the result was very nice.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 14,3Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net   

Recorder: Olympus LS10
Mic. Binaural headphones w/ Primo EM172 capsule
Pix: Nokia N82

Creatures in the pool

In the beach below the Hotel “Europe Villa Cortes GL” at Tenerife is a sea pool. It was probably build some years ago for people to swim, but today it is full of all kinds of algae, snails, crabs and other creatures, so it looks not popular for humans.
In the afternoon at 22 of December 2011, I put hydrophone in the pool and recorded more than one hour of mystique sound. Most audible sound are rumbling sound from the surf. Sometimes the waves goes all the way in the pool with splashing sound and sometimes footsteps can be heard when people walk by the pool side. But there is also many other sounds from organic creatures, most likely from hungry snails scratching the pool surface.

Short version Download mp3 file (192kbps / 4,2Mb)
Long version Download mp3 file (192kbps / 28Mb)

See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net
Recorder: Sound Devices 744 (24bit / 48Khz)
Mic: Aquarian H2a-XLR
Pix: Olympus 4040 (underwater) and Canon 30D (See more pictures)

Earthquake at Seltúnshver (Geothermal area)

It was in the beginning of mars, earthquake hit my house.
Almost nonstop earthquakes shakes landscapes south and east of Reykjavik capital so I was sure my recorder had picked up some earthquakes previous years. I searched in my mind where it was most likely it could have happened. After some research I found one, in almost forgotten recording. It was recorded in april 2011, when I and my pal at work went a day trip to Reykjanes peninsula. Reykjanes is very well known for earthquakes and geothermal activity. The main reason for this trip was to look at the changes of some geothermal area because of increasing activity last decade. As usual, my recorders followed me in this trip, but I was not satisfied with these recordings…until now.
Hereby I mix together five of these recordings as a travel log for this day trip.
First one is a hot spring that for centuries has been under water in Kleifarvatn Lake until the lake started to shrink after big earthquake at the year 2000.
The second one is also a hot spring recording but it contains the earthquake at very low frequency (10Hz). The third one is another hot springs close by, but with different mics and they did not detect earthquake as clearly. Both this recordings are recoded at Seltúnshver (Seltúns-hver=Seltuns-hotspring).
The fourth one was recorded at Gunnuhver close to Reykjanesvirkjun, a power plant that has changes a lot the geothermal activity on Reykjanes peninsula.
The fifth recording is waves of Atlantic Ocean hammering the cliffs at Reykanestá.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 22Mb)

The earthquake. Speed up version about 2x octave of the second recording above (Almost 3 minutes shrink to 37 sek). Subwoofer or quality headphones recommended

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 0,9Mb)

Recorders: Korg MR1000 and Sound devices 552
Mics: Rode NT4 (XY) and Rode NT2a/Sennheiser ME64 (MS)
Pix: Canon 30D (see more pictures and information)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net  

In two worlds

In Reykjavik center is a quiet big pond or a lake with many bird species, like Swans, Gooses and Ducks. Often people feed this birds with bread so outburst is normal when birds grasp the breadcrumbs.
This recordings was made simultaneously both above and under water on four tracks. Two hydrophones where placed 2 meters apart and 20 cm above the pond bottom. On the steel bridge above was two cardioid in XY setup.

Above the pond. Download mp3 file (192kbps / 10,1Mb)
In both worlds. Above and in the pond. Download mp3 file (192kbps / 10,1Mb)
In the pond. Download mp3 file (192kbps / 10,1Mb)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net 

Recorder: Sound devices 744 w/552 preamp
Mics: Aquarian H2a-XLR (spaced omni) and Rode NT1a (XY)
Pix: Canon 30D