I wanted to use the “field recordings” I had occasionally taken throughout this year to throw something together. I wanted to make something quiet in contrast to most of my previous work yet still a bit chaotic and noisy. Originally I had intended to improvise live with these recordings but I ran out of time to teach myself how. However arranging them in a DAW gave me more control perhaps allowing more subtlety and a nuanced chaos rather than a noisy mess.
List of voice notes I intended to use:
- 100 yen store closing song, Fukuoka city
- My bad guitar noodling on an open tuning at my parents, Finchley
- Distant Jazz from a pub sat by the canal, Mile End
- Kurume station birds
- rain and wind chimes in Otaru
- Somebody performing karaoke at George Tavern, Shadwell
- canal boat engine on a soundwalk in Park Royal
- strange drain sound of a fountain in Victoria Park’s English Garden, Tower Hamlets
- A vintage store in Sheffield’s cd player skipping
- Walking away from a small waterfall/weir in a nature reserve in Whetstone
- Young Folks playing in the club (The Cause’s) chillout room as we walk through, Canning Town
- Pub ambience and my friend talking and laughing near St Pauls
- Taiko drumming at the Temple my grandma goes, Kurume (actually a youtube clip that matched what I heard)
These were “all” taken using the iPhones voice notes app. I am by no means a serial field recorder so these were random and in the moment, capturing something I found interesting. I think their meanings grew from that as they became memories. Like I could and want to tell a story about each one (but I won’t). I think I also associate/attach meaning to them from other times, contexts and feelings not just that specific moment or day that it represents.
I noticed they all have a wistful quality to them. The lo-fi ness of the phone recording quality, usually unwanted noise from the surrounding world, personal nostalgia. It reminded me of those youtube videos that produce a fake sense of melancholy by placing songs in hyperspecific yet universal settings.
For example Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John was my favourite song when I was a child because it was one of only two songs that i liked on my Dad’s old ipod. (Other one was Uptown Top Ranking) So it was so bizzare hearing it as we walked out of the club room merging with the techno. A clash of my past and present self.
I wonder what meanings listeners will attach to this piece. Even if they dont know what it means to me. Will they feel like they got to know me a bit? Will it remind them of their own memories? Will they be underwhelmed by its simplicity and unpolishedness? Will they listen to each voice? Are the things I associate with it the truth?