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we004
Lori Beckstead & Dave Rose
Winanga-li: Australian Soundscapes
If someone showed you a photograph of the neighbourhood you live in, you’d be sure to recognize it. But could you recognize it from a sound recording? What have you noticed about the soundscape around you today?
These soundscapes, recorded in Australia, were captured using binaural microphones. By placing a microphone close to each ear, binaural recordings attempt to capture sound just the way you would hear it if you had been there. Rather than using these recordings as "objets sonores" from which to create new compositions through electronic manipulation, the soundscapes are presented here virtually unaltered. They are like unretouched, sonic photographs. The intention is not to create art from sound, but rather to present sound as art. The listener is invited to immerse themselves in these sonic environments and create their own interpretations of them. Do you recognize what you are hearing? Do the sounds evoke memories, inspire curiosity? What do the sounds mean to you?
The name of the work is an Aboriginal word from the Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay language of northern New South Wales meaning “to hear, to listen, to know, to remember”.
Download Full Album:
we004 - Winanga-li - Austrailian Soundscapes (35.6 MB)
Download Tracks:
| Track 01 - Creekside (3.86MB) |
| Recorded in John Forrest National Park, Perth, Western Australia in September, 2004. Various birds, frogs, flies, and water sounds can be heard. |
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| Track 02 - Frogs (1.07MB) |
| As we walked home one night to our apartment in Balmain (a neighbourhood of Sydney), we were intrigued by some weird sounds emanating from a house half a block away. We thought we were hearing a musician experimenting with peculiar sounds on a synthesizer with the volume cranked way up. When we arrived at the house, we realized that it was a chorus of frogs that had a colonized a garage under renovation. The floor of the garage had been dug out and after a heavy rainfall there was at least 30 cm of water in the pit, from which the frogs were chirping. The cavernous space of the brick garage provided an eerie reverberation. We ran the rest of the way home to get the recorder and ran back to capture this fascinating sound. |
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| Track 03 - Symphonyhall (4.42MB) |
| This is the sound from inside the iconic Sydney Opera House, as the orchestra tuned up for a performance and the audience settled in to their seats. Recorded in July, 2004. |
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| Track 04 - Surf (4.75MB) |
| This is the gentle lap of waves arriving on a beach. As you listen to these waves, nothing stands between you and Antarctica but a wide open sea. Recorded on Kangaroo Island in the state of Victoria, June 2002. |
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| Track 05 - Parkbats (2.63MB) |
| This is the sound of Grey-headed Flying Foxes feeding at night in a giant fig tree in Elkington Park, Balmain, New South Wales. |
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| Track 06 - Harbourstorm (3.30MB) |
| This is the only soundscape in this work that is a composite soundscape —that is, two separate soundscapes were layered together to create the sound you hear. Both were recorded in the same location—at the edge of Sydney Harbour in Balmain—but at different times. One recording is the musical, polyrhythmic sound of halyards clanging against the masts of anchored sailboats while small waves lap the rocky shoreline. The other recording is the sound of light rain while thunder rolls in the distance. |
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| Track 07 - Dawnchorus (5.47MB) |
| As day breaks over Pemberton, Western Australia, there is much news to be exchanged amongst the birds. |
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| Track 08 - Threebirds (3.51MB) |
| The Laughing Kookaburra’s call is uniquely Australian, although many North Americans associate this extraordinary sound with “monkeys” or “the jungle”, thanks to Saturday morning cartoons that often use this striking sound in those contexts. Australian writer Eleanor Dark poetically described kookaburras as having “…wild, ripe, strident voices whose ribald joviality is a sly satire on the mellifluous notes of other birds.” (from Lantana Lane, 1959). Recorded in November, 2004 in Pearl Beach, New South Wales. The Australian Magpie is certainly a bird with a mellifluous call. Magpies sing the most enchanting, polyphonic songs…they seem to be able to sing more than one dulcet note at once. Henry Tate wrote of the magpie that “…the melody which pours from his beak, inexhaustible in variety, is filled to the brim of its last golden cup with sound of ravishing timbre.” (from Australian Musical Possibilities, 1924). What you are hearing is the sound of two magpies as they peck seeds from a table on a balcony overlooking Sydney Harbour, while trilling occasionally to each other and to their mates in a nearby tree. Recorded in July 2005 in Balmain, NSW. In stark contrast to the harmonious sound of the magpie, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos produce a raucous, grating screech. The screeches you hear here are those of a flock of cockatoos getting ready to settle in for the night. They were recorded in Callala Beach, NSW in November, 2004. |
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| Track 09 - Parade (3.51MB) |
| Anzac Day, observed each year on April 25th, is an opportunity for the Australian people to honour the men and women who serve and have served in the Australian military. “Anzac” is the acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The tone of the day is less somber than what we are accustomed to on Remembrance Day here in Canada; the Anzac Day parade is long and loud and runs down the main street through Sydney’s Central Business District. This soundscape was recorded on George Street just outside the historic Queen Victoria Building as the parade passed by. |
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| Track 10 - Friarbirds (2.34MB) |
These extraordinary bird calls were recorded in June 2004, near Myall Lakes National Park, NSW. I have no idea whether these are indeed Noisy Friar Birds or not; although it should have been easy to spot birds that are this vocal, I was unable to get a good look at any one of them in order to identify the species with certainty.
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| Track 11 - Urbanfrogs (3.78MB) |
| Frogs chat as children play in King’s Park, Perth, Western Australia. |
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Wandering Ear releases are free to download under a Creative Commons License.
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