Field Recordings come in many varieties. From the documentary recordings, as true to nature as possible, to environmental soundscapes, using recorded sounds to create a completely new environment.
Presenting music by recording artists like Jacob Kirkegaard, Chris Watson and Jana Winderen, Touch Music is definitely one of the finest labels in presenting this form of sound-art.
After releasing her beautiful (live) recording “Heated: Live in Japan” last year, Jana Winderen‘s “Energy Field” is her new full album on Touch.
More-than-full, actually, for (on-line) buyers also receive a free download of Jana’s live performance on the Today’s Art festival in Den Haag, in 2009.
On Energy Field, Jana Winderen takes us on an acoustical journey to the unknown marine ecosystems of the Barents Sea (north of Norway and Russia), to the crevasses of glaciers, the fjords into the open ocean, and the open spaces of Greenland.
Her education in Fine Arts, as well as in Mathematics, Chemistry and Fish ecology ensure a thorough background knowledge of the work she is presenting.
“I have been occupied with finding sounds from unseen sources of sound, like blind field recordings. […] In the depth of the oceans, there are invisible but audible soundscapes, sbout which we are largely ignorant, even if the oceans cover 70% of our planet. I am also experimenting with different types of microphones to collect sounds which are not obviously recognisable, but give room fro broader, more imaghinative readings”.
The three tracks on Energy Field are deeply isolated and desolate. No matter where you listen, be sure to have a sweater nearby because you’re gonna feel the cold.
The album starts of with some familiar, recognisable of animal sounds, but within a few minutes you’re transported to the Deepest of the Deep.
In fact, music cannot go much deeper than this, literally. Somehow, it reminded me of the best work of Sleep Research Facility, although the starting point of these projects is entirely different.
As said, the purchase of this album comes with a free download of the Den Haag Today’s Art performance. But there’s more: Touch also released a beautiful 18 minute video of the same installation: Evaporation.
It’s a new edition in the T-Phone series of video downloads for iPhone/iTouch (also check out Biosphere’s ‘Outside by the Fjord‘).
Don’t worry if you do not own one of these: the .m4v files can also play on most computer systems.