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This article explores the role of the radio as an artistic instrument. It discusses both contemporary and historical art experiments, namely those where the sound of the radio or the form of radio reception is an important aspect of the final work. We examine the question, 'What does it mean for a radio to be an instrument?' And to clarify, we mean any kind of instrument, not just a musical one. To answer this question, this article focuses on the concepts and theory of those Polish artists who have used radio in their artwork, either as the source of a particular type of sound or as a medium that collects and transmits the sound of its surroundings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the history of the use and reception of field recordings on radio, in France and Britain, outside the categories considered as art or music such as hörspiel or musique concrète. It shows that radio producers had diverse reactions to the use of sonic ambiences recorded in the field. There was an opposition between a 'Pure Sound School', which promoted the use of field recordings instead of voice to depict the environment where the reporter was, and a school that privileged voice. If the use of recordings of sonic ambiences was not new, their utilisation on radio as elements autonomous in themselves was. They were falling between categories: they were not reports (because of the absence of voice), they were not musique concrète (because sounds were not modified and were presented within their context, that is, not as sound objects), they were not sound effects (because they lasted several minutes and could be composed through editing), and they were not wildlife recordings (because wildlife could be absent). Sonic ambiences were new sonic objects that took time to digest. This time also represented a listening mutation, and this will be analysed through the beginnings of radio documentaries and the works of sound hunters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to investigate the process of diachronic transmission with reference to oral material. Departing from field recordings from the very north of Sweden this article intends to account for the transmitting of oral song traditions connected with two pious song books, Sions sånger/Sion’s Songs and Sions nya sånger/Sion’s New Songs from the 18th century. The song books were published in numerous editions up until 1975 and foremost used by religious dissenters. Only song texts were provided in the books – as for melodies the congregation had to deal with directions to contemporary melodies, mostly hymns. The recordings indicate that several both sacred and profane melodies used during the 18th century may have followed the songs for more than 200 years in oral tradition. The restricted life within the congregations is a prerequisite for this process which goes on within the collective. In the present investigation the contradictory words acceptance and avoidance/repudiation are used to make clear what elements are active as both controlling and cooperative in the dynamic transmitting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although most well-known for his plays and prose, the Irish writer Brendan Behan also recorded a number of songs, some of his own composition and others either traditional or written by contemporaries. His best-known recording, Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folk Songs and Ballads, remarkably captures not only his voice, but also his wit and distinct joie de vivre. The collection from 1960 includes not only the songs themselves (with Behan still in fine singing form), but also his introductions and wry comments on a range of subjects. The article looks at the circumstances behind the recording, the actual songs included on the album, and Behan’s ongoing commentary about a range of topics. The focus is on the first half of the recording which consists of songs from his play The Hostage, with an additional short discussion of one of his most well-known pieces, “The Auld Triangle,” which serves as an ongoing leitmotif in his earlier play, The Quare Fellow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I represent film materiality’s sensory and ecological aspects through the sounds I recorded during my ethnographic fieldwork on contemporary analogue film practices. By re-listening to the recorded sounds without visual references, I explore the multisensory and aesthetic relationships that human actors have with the film material, and what nonhuman actors have to say about their material causality in these soundscapes. By shifting the focus from the visuality of the film to the sonic qualities of the film material, I explore the potential of sonically observing the media materiality.

In August 1940, three New Zealand radio broadcasters set sail on an army troop ship from Wellington. They were bound for Egypt, where the New Zealand armed forces were part of the British Empire’s push to drive the German and Italian armies out of North Africa and the Middle East. With them was a mobile recording van, equipped to capture on lacquer discs the voices and sounds of New Zealanders at war, and send those recordings back home for radio broadcasts on the other side of the world. For the next five years, the Mobile Broadcasting Unit recorded interviews and reports about the fighting and the day-to-day business of war, as well as thousands of simple messages home from servicemen, and a few women. Today, the 1600 surviving Mobile Unit discs form part of the sound archives of Radio New Zealand, held by audiovisual archive Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. In this article the author will outline the history of the Mobile Units and the context in which they worked. She will also describe on-going work to identify the speakers heard in their recordings and make this collection more discoverable and accessible to researchers. Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision is currently digitising the collection and preservation archivist Sandy Ditchburn will describe some of the challenges she has encountered in capturing sound from the 80-year-old lacquer discs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the research of instrumental traditional music in the Slovenian space carried out by associates of the ZRC SAZU Institute of Ethnomusicology. It examines the audio resources available for the research of instrumental traditional music practices, as well as the orientations that have had an impact on the interpretation of the collected and analysed material.

COVID-19 surfaced in late 2019, threatening catastrophic impact on all aspects of human life. The recent upheaval has had far reaching existential challenges globally. Responses to the pandemic, while still ongoing, have sharply exposed critical issues of access and inequalities in facilities for health, education, social amenities, economy, standards of living, political leadership, and existential emergencies in different global contexts. Access to social activities that impacts directly on inclusiveness and human equalities with its potential to close the widening gulfs in different contexts is currently critically affected. Inevitable lockdowns at the national and state levels forced impromptu disruptions on access to cultural activities, social life, and human interaction at all levels. Musical culture combined with activities of the Nigerian people was not spared in this unpredicted constraint. The straining pandemic forcefully interrupted many socio-cultural activities and research projects that rely on indigenous musical presentations and performances. In this article, we analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to folk music materials for the Library of Folk Music of Nigeria Project started about 2005. The article also ascertains the effect of the pandemic on access and disruptions of cultural activities that support folk music production in Nigeria. The intervening lockdown disruptions inter-roping lack of access to social activities is problematised in the article. Multiple research methods are employed; these are action research involving discussions with relevant selected folk music leaders, descriptive, analytical, secondary, and online resources. The article argues the direct connection of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions to increased strain on access to folk music for recordings that affected the library project in the pandemic time. La COVID-19 a fait son apparition fin 2019, provoquant un impact catastrophique dans tous les modes de vie des populations. Les bouleversements récents ont eu des conséquences considérables sur les conditions de vie dans le monde. Les réponses à la pandémie, bien qu'elles soient toujours en cours, ont mis en évidence les questions cruciales de l'accès et des inégalités dans les services de santé, l'éducation, les équipements sociaux, l'économie, les niveaux de vie, le rôle des dirigeants politiques et les urgences essentielles dans différents contextes mondiaux. L'accès aux activités sociales, qui a un impact direct sur l'inclusion et l'égalité entre les hommes et qui peut permettre de combler les fossés qui se creusent dans différents contextes, est actuellement gravement compromis. Les confinements inévitables aux niveaux fédéral et des états ont entraîné des perturbations imprévues de l'accès aux activités culturelles, à la vie sociale et à l'interaction humaine à tous les niveaux. La culture musicale, associée aux activités du peuple nigérian, n'a pas été épargnée par cette contrainte imprévue. La pandémie a interrompu de force de nombreuses activités socioculturelles et projets de recherche qui reposaient sur des présentations et des performances musicales indigènes. Dans cet article, nous analysons l'impact de la pandémie de COVID-19 sur l'accès aux matériels de musique folklorique pour le projet de la Library of Folk Music of Nigeria entamé en 2005. L'article constate également l'effet de la pandémie sur l'accès et les interruptions des activités culturelles soutenant la production de musique folklorique au Nigeria. L'article problématisé les bouleversements liés au confinement et au manque d'accès à des activités sociales. Plusieurs méthodes de recherche ont été appliquées : une recherche active basée sur des discussions avec des leaders de la musique folklorique, ainsi que des ressources descriptives, analytiques, secondaires et en ligne. L'article fait valoir le lien direct entre les disruptions de la pandémie COVID-19 et la contrainte supplémentaire sur l'accès à la musique folklorique pour les enregistrements qui ont affecté le projet de la bibliothèque pendant la période de pandémie. Ende 2019 tauchte mit COVID-19 eine katastrophale Bedrohung für alle Aspekte des menschlichen Lebens auf. Dieser Umbruch hat auf der ganzen Welt für weitreichende existenzielle Herausforderungen gesorgt. Die Reaktionen auf die Pandemie werfen bis heute kritische Fragen zur Zugänglichkeit und zur Ungleichbehandlung in Einrichtungen der Gesundheit und Bildung, in sozialen Einrichtungen, in Wirtschaft, Lebensstandard, politischer Führung und in Bezug auf existenzielle Notlagen in verschiedenen globalen Kontexten überdeutlich auf. Der Zugang zu sozialen Aktivitäten mit direkter Auswirkung auf Inklusion und menschliche Gleichstellung sowie mit seinem Potenzial, die sich vertiefende Spaltung in verschiedenen Zusammenhängen zu schließen, ist derzeit in ernster Gefahr. Unvermeidliche Schließungen auf nationaler und bundesstaatlicher Ebene führten zur abrupten Unterbrechung des Zugangs zu kulturellen Aktivitäten, zum sozialen Leben und zur menschlichen Interaktion auf allen Ebenen. Die von den Nigerianern aktiv gelebte Musikkultur blieb von diesem unvorhergesehenen Zwang nicht verschont. Die belastende Pandemie unterbrach mit Macht viele soziokulturelle Aktivitäten und Forschungsprojekte, die auf indigene Musikdarbietungen und Aufführungen angewiesen waren. In diesem Artikel analysieren wir die Auswirkungen der COVID-19-Pandemie auf den Zugang zu Materialien traditioneller Musik für das seit etwa 2005 laufende Projekt der Library of Folk Music of Nigeria. Der Artikel untersucht auch die Auswirkungen der Pandemie durch die Unterbrechungen der kulturellen Aktivitäten und deren Zugänglichkeit im Zusammenhang mit der nigerianischen Volksmusik. Die für den fehlenden Zugang zu sozialen Aktivitäten ursächlichen Lockdowns werden im Artikel problematisiert. Wir haben unterschiedliche Forschungsmethoden eingesetzt, nämlich Aktionsforschung unter Einbeziehung von Diskussionen mit repräsentativ ausgewählten Volksmusikerinnen und Volksmusikern, sowie deskriptive, analytische, sekundäre und Onlinequellen. Der Artikel betont den direkten Zusammenhang zwischen den Störungen durch die COVID-19-Pandemie und dem stark erschwerten Zugang zu Aufnahmen von Volksmusik, welche das Bibliotheksprojekt in diesen pandemischen Zeiten beeinflussen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconceiving relations with the more-than-human is a central concern of scholarship in the Anthropocene. In documentary film, entanglements with the more-than-human are expressed through cinematic relationships with subjects such as bees, freeways, Antarctic science, abandoned military bunkers, and emergency firefighting operations. Several recent documentary films use their soundtracks to anchor these engagements. This paper examines the construction of these soundtracks through a comparison between documentary film and phonography. Phonography – broadly defined as creative practices of recording, editing, and listening to sonic environments – foregrounds the material/cultural processes of all sound recording by attending to specific uses of microphones and studio editing techniques. I situate these sonic practices in relation to the foundational poles of soundscape and objet sonore established by R. Murray Schafer and Pierre Schaeffer, work by contemporary practitioners, and recent theorizations in sound studies. Interweaving an account of recent documentary soundtracks with theories and practices of phonography highlights the conceptual implications of specific sound recording techniques and attends to the ethics of sound recording practices. These sonic practices pose new questions about the work performed through documentary film soundtracks' engagements with the more-than-human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how sound—as a medium, method, and modality—attunes educational ethnographers to writing the "field" in new ways. In particular, the authors ask: How might cultivating practices of writing the field recording reorient the field note as an ethnographic object of inquiry? Examining the field recording as a representational, experimental, and pedagogical resource for prolonging encounters, this article reframes inquiry to disrupt what is traditionally read as experience in writing ethnographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Steven Connor's book Giving Way begins with a list of unappreciated qualities, the first of which is a capitalised: 'SILENCE'. Shyness, reserve, withdrawal and holding back accompany silence in a long sentence of qualities, which 'tend to be marked with disapproval, sympathy or revulsion', and some of which are, as Connor notes, 'characterized as a mental disorder, in the form of social anxiety or social phobia' (Connor 2019: 1). Silence is often seen as a lack of agency, an anti-social and suspect unwillingness to participate. But as a sound artist working with field-recording, I am aware that silence, withdrawal and holding back can also be a form or method of practice and participation. Since 2004, my creative practice has included a series of physical and imagined silent releases. This article draws on these works and their documentation to explore silence as a potential, shared and communal space; an immediate composition that invites both listener and non-listener into its congress. Listening in on the conversation of telephone pauses and the closed paragraphs of library shelves, silence can be heard undoing purposeful agency, shyly engaging us in the anti-social practice of inaction, so that we might not participate together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Якутская песенная традиция Мегино-Кангаласского улуса В статье изучаются песенные традиции Мегино-Кангаласского улуса Якутии. Нотные расшифровки народных песен данной локальной традиции начали издавать с конца 30-х гг. XX в., когда Н. И. Пейко и И. А. Штейнман провели экспедицию в этом улусе. 12 напевов представлены в сборнике С. А. Кондратьева (1963) и 2 - в сборнике «Саха народнай ырыалара» (1975). По изданным сборникам и статьям в советское время в Мегино-Кангаласском улусе бытовали разнообразные жанры традиционной якутской песенности и помимо дьиэрэтии ырыа и дэгэрэн ырыа, в том числе существовали сатирические песни, исчезающие в тот период хонсуо ырыата и энэлгэн ырыата и др. В четырехтомном сборнике «Саха народнай ырыалара» («Якутские народные песни») выявлены еще современные песни, а также песни в манере дьиэрэтии ырыа и дэгэрэн ырыа. Предложено также дополнить этномузыковедческие термины жанрами отчут ырыата (песня косаря), туойуу ырыата (воспевание возлюбленной), суктэр кыыс ырыата (песня девушки, выходящей замуж), кырыыс ырыата (песня-проклятие). По мнению краеведа Иннокентия Михайловича Сосина фольклорные очаги Мегино-Кангаласского улуса располагались вдоль речек или на больших ала-асах. В статье также проведен анализ якутских народных песен на стихи П. А. Ойунского в исполнении И. Н. Колосова. Выявлено, что все песни представляют собой варианты одного напева, а поэтическая структура идентична структуре якутского кругового обрядового танца ohyoxaй.

The article examines the conditions of mutual influence of a fixed text and a folklore field, i. e. secondary factors which are significant during the recording of a text and its ‘return’ to the informant in the form of media and printed materials. The methods applied are as follows: audio and video recordings and journaling; comparative-typological, structural-functional, and statistical analyses.The Circassian diaspora of Anatolia is a unique folklore field. So far the researchers of the traditional culture of the Circassian diaspora have paid no attention to the factors of the ‘reverse’ influence of the scientific discourse and the fixed text which, thus, happened to be in the field of the tradition.The article aims to identify the factors of such mutual influence of texts of a separate cultural enclave and its informants in conditions of a gradual development of the Cyrillic alphabet and the appearance of publications of oral texts in the form of printed and media products. Observations outlined in the article are based on the author’s collecting and editional experiences accumulated during the in-depth study of Uzun-Yaila (Kayseri Vilayet, Turkey) folklore field during the 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015 expeditions and the preparation of field records of local folklore for subsequent publications. The paper reveals the principles of working on a text important for the diaspora field. In particular, taking into account the ‘horizontal’ communication intensity in the field under study, it is necessary to pay attention to the questions formulating strategy, including those set by folklorists in the media space (social networks), when composing the conceptual and terminological apparatus of the editions of local traditions — to give priority to popular definitions, to adhere to graphic symbols and principles which make the written text as close as possible to the local dialect without complicating the interpretation (i. e. to reserve more accurate transcriptions for special language editions). In general, the interaction of a folklore publishing scientist and representatives of the tradition under study should consciously adhere to the principle of the minimal ‘invasion’ into the vernacular practices.

The role of G. V. Ksenofontov in collecting the Russian folklore in Yakutia is considered. The question is raised about the connection of recording of folklore texts, which were carried out by G. V. Ksenofontov. A. A. Savvin, S. I. Bolo, T. A. Shub. Collecting activities of Ksenofontov in the Western-Kangalassky ulus in the 1920-ies is described. The main attention is paid to the personality of Ksenofontov in the period of his formation as a researcher, the sources of his scientific interests are studied. His methods of recording and working with the material under study are characterized. The novelty of research is seen in the fact that for the first time the scientific approach of G. V. Ksenofontov to the collected material is studied taking into account the possible connection with the principles of research activity of A. A. Savvin and S. I. Bolo. The influence of his approaches and methods on the formation of the scientific tradition of fixating the Yakut and Russian materials of folklore and ethnographic sources is estimated. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that at the present stage it becomes important to determine the sequence of experience accumulation and the creation of programs for the folklore collecting, as well as to evaluate the contribution of G. V. Ksenofontov in this activity.

The article presents the research of instrumental traditional music in the Slovenian space carried out by associates of the ZRC SAZU Institute of Ethnomusicology. It examines the audio resources available for the research of instrumental traditional music practices, as well as the orientations that have had an impact on the interpretation of the collected and analysed material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecoacoustics has the potential to provide a large amount of information about the abundance of many animal species at a relatively low cost. Acoustic recording units are widely used in field data collection, but the facilities to reliably process the data recorded – recognizing calls that are relatively infrequent, and often significantly degraded by noise and distance to the microphone – are not well‐developed yet.We propose a call detection method for continuous field recordings that can be trained quickly and easily on new species, and degrades gracefully with increased noise or distance from the microphone. The method is based on the reconstruction of the sound from a subset of the wavelet nodes (elements in the wavelet packet decomposition tree). It is intended as a preprocessing filter, therefore we aim to minimize false negatives: false positives can be removed in subsequent processing, but missed calls will not be looked at again.We compare our method to standard call detection methods, and also to machine learning methods (using as input features either wavelet energies or Mel‐Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) on real‐world noisy field recordings of six bird species. The results show that our method has higher recall (proportion detected) than the alternative methods: 87% with 85% specificity on >53 hr of test data, resulting in an 80% reduction in the amount of data that needed further verification. It detected >60% of calls that were extremely faint (far away), even with high background noise.This preprocessing method is available in our AviaNZ bioacoustic analysis program and enables the user to significantly reduce the amount of subsequent processing required (whether manual or automatic) to analyse continuous field recordings collected by spatially and temporally large‐scale monitoring of animal species. It can be trained to recognize new species without difficulty, and if several species are sought simultaneously, filters can be run in parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The median preoptic nucleus (MnPO) and the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO) are two brain structures that contain neurons essential for promoting non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. However, their connections are still largely unknown. Here, we describe for the first time a slice preparation with an oblique coronal slicing angle at 70° from the horizontal in which their connectivity is preserved. Using the in vivo iDISCO method following viral infection of the MnPO or ex vivo biocytin crystal deposition in the MnPO of mouse brain slices, we revealed a strong axonal pathway from the MnPO to the VLPO. Then, to further explore the functionality of these projections, acute 70° slices were placed on multielectrode arrays (MEAs) and electrical stimulations were performed near the MnPO. Recordings of the signals propagation throughout the slices revealed a preferential pathway from the MnPO to the VLPO. Finally, we performed an input–output curve of field responses evoked by stimulation of the MnPO and recorded in the VLPO. We found that field responses were inhibited by GABAA receptor antagonist, suggesting that afferent inputs from the MnPO activate VLPO neuronal networks by disinhibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores recent theories of listening, perception and embodiment, including those by Mark Grimshaw and Tom Garner, Salomé Voegelin, and Eric Clarke, as well as consequences and possibilities arising from them in relation to field recording and soundscape art practice. These theories of listening propose auditory perception as an embodied process of engaging with and understanding lived environment. Such phenomenological listening is understood as a relational engagement with the world in motion, as movement and change, which grants access to the listener's emerging presence, agency and place in the world. Such ideas on listening have developed concurrently with new approaches to making and presenting field recordings, with a focus on developing phonographic methods for capturing and presenting the recordist's embodied auditory perspective. In the present study, 'first-person' field recording is defined as both method and culturally significant material whereby a single recordist carries, wears or remains present with a microphone, consciously and reflexively documenting their personal listening encounters. This article examines the practice of first-person field recording and considers its specific applications in a range of sound art and soundscape art examples, including work by Gabi Losoncy, Graham Lambkin, Christopher Delaurenti and Klaysstarr (the author). In the examination of these methods and works, first-person field recording is considered as a means of capturing the proximate auditory space of the recordist as a mediated 'point of ear', which may be embodied, inhabited, and listened through by a subsequent listener. The article concludes with a brief summary of the discussion before some closing thoughts on recording, listening and the field, on field recording as practice-research and on potential connections with other fields in which the production of virtual environments is a key focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: We describe a method for segmentation of ethnomusicological field recordings, which robustly segments field recordings into individual units labelled as speech, solo singing, choir singing, and instrumentals. We also present the SeFiRe segmentation tool that can be used to visualize and segment field recordings. The article presents a method for segmentation of ethnomusicological field recordings. Field recordings are integral documents of folk music performances captured in the field, and typically contain performances, intertwined with interviews and commentaries. As these are live recordings, captured in non-ideal conditions, they usually contain significant background noise. We present a segmentation method that segments field recordings into individual units labelled as speech, solo singing, choir singing, and instrumentals. Classification is based on convolutional deep networks, and is augmented with a probabilistic approach for segmentation. We describe the dataset gathered for the task and the tools developed for gathering the reference annotations. We outline a deep network architecture based on residual modules for labelling short audio segments and compare it to the more standard feature based approaches, where an improvement in classification accuracy of over 10% was obtained. We also present the SeFiRe segmentation tool that incorporates the presented segmentation method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field sound recordings are an indispensable source of data for ethnomusicologists. However, to my knowledge there are no standards or guidelines of how this data should be captured and managed. With the progress made in machine learning, it has become vital to record data in a way that also supports the retrieval of information about the music. This article describes a model developed for field recordings that aims to aid an objective data gathering process. This model, developed through an action research process that spanned multiple field recording sessions from 2009-2015, include recording equipment, production processes, the gathering of metadata as well as intellectual property rights. The core principles identified in this research are that field recording systems should be designed to provide accurate feedback as a means of quality control and should capture and manage metadata without relying on secondary tools. The major findings are presented in the form of a checklist that can serve as a point of departure for ethnomusicologists making field recordings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a method for segmentation of ethnomusicological field recordings. Field recordings are integral documents of folk music performances captured in the field, and typically contain performances, intertwined with interviews and commentaries. As these are live recordings, captured in non-ideal conditions, they usually contain significant background noise. We present a segmentation method that segments field recordings into individual units labelled as speech, solo singing, choir singing, and instrumentals. Classification is based on convolutional deep networks, and is augmented with a probabilistic approach for segmentation. We describe the dataset gathered for the task and the tools developed for gathering the reference annotations. We outline a deep network architecture based on residual modules for labelling short audio segments and compare it to the more standard feature based approaches, where an improvement in classification accuracy of over 10% was obtained. We also present the SeFiRe segmentation tool that incorporates the presented segmentation method.

The challenges in verifying vowel nasalization acoustically are well-known, and for this reason many researchers have opted for the use of nasal airflow masks. Such equipment, however, is not always affordable for recordings or projects conducted in the field. In the present article, we apply the recently developed technology of earbud recordings in Stewart & Kohlberger (2017) to the study of nasality in Maxakalí as a new method in experimental fieldwork phonology. This language has several phenomena related to nasality such as nasal spreading, prenasalization at the beginning of words, and glottal transparency in morphologicallyalternating 'long forms'. One goal in using methodology with affordable equipment is to make it easier to generate a visual representation of the timing of the nasal profile of a word, thereby yielding possibilities for experimental linguistics to show increased integration with language description and pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past half century, the practice of field recording has shifted from an ethnographic to sonic arts pursuit. This transition reflects a variety of factors including changes in access to technologies, developments in the social sciences, acoustic ecology, and understandings of how sonic phenomena can be manifest and applied beyond research applications. As an artistic practice though, field recording, and its creative root in listening, remains largely under theorized. In this article, I outline a critical approach to listening as it pertains to the practice of field recording. Placing itself within several historical and social movements, it explores the role of field recording in relation to sound phenomena, place, and listening in order to address the experiential elements of the practice. I engage with three theoretical domains: sound, place, and listening. I propose a new theoretical approach titled ‘relational listening’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Passively working devices (with no operator input) that register bat calls in real time are very important in conservation and environmental risk assessment, but data on their performance and limits under field conditions are mostly missing. We characterized the recording variability among three batcorders placed in proximate vicinity (ca. 10 m apart) to each other at 157 sites in Austria (central Europe). We found this variability perplexingly high, both for bat activity and species richness estimates. Specifically, the ratio of the highest to the lowest total sequence length (all species combined) was over fivefold in 23%, and over tenfold in 8% of the sites. In only 17% of the sites, we found the same number of species for all three devices - in most sites it varied between one and five species. The maximum call ranges of the recorded bat species affected the recording variability between the devices only for short ranges (5 m) but showed similar or relatively low variability for longer ranges. There was significantly less recording variability in sites with no woody vegetation present than in sites with open to dense vegetation structure. The results clearly indicate that the common practice of deploying only one device per site and night very likely leads to several of the resident bat species being missed and produces unreliable activity estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes two site-specific sound installations conceived as part of interdisciplinary collaborations which aimed to explore different acoustic and perceptual features of urban and rural landscapes. The creative process involved in the design and implementation of both installations is described, focusing on the organic montage techniques based on spatial and temporal features of field recording methods. Future developments of the works will consider ways of developing further spatial-temporal sampling methods to assess particular features of soundscapes by panels of trained listeners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is an analysis of two sound art performances that took place in June 2015 in outdoor public spaces at the social housing area Urbanplanen in Copenhagen, Denmark. The two performances were On the Productions of a Poor Acoustics by Brandon LaBelle and Green Interactive Biofeedback Environments (GIBE) by Jeremy Woodruff. In order to investigate the complex situation that arises when sound art is staged in such contexts, the authors of this article suggest exploring the events through approaching them as ‘situations’ (Doherty 2009). With this approach it becomes possible to engage and combine theories from several fields. Aspects of sound art studies, performance studies and contemporary art studies are presented in order to theoretically explore the very diverse dimensions of the two sound art pieces. Visual, auditory, performative, social, spatial and durational dimensions become integrated within the analysis in our pursuit of the most comprehensive interpretation of the pieces possible. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The environmental aesthetics literature has primarily focused on the aesthetic qualities and values of landscapes. Within this scholarship, there has been a modest but steady advancement towards explicitly attending to the aesthetic experience of landscape sounds. In this paper, I review the theoretical and applied sonic aesthetics literature pertinent to landscape research, and identify some existing weaknesses. In particular, I demonstrate that there is an ongoing tendency to limit discussions to what is sonically pleasing or displeasing within a given landscape, which, I argue, provides a limited point of entry through which to consider the full scope of landscape sounds. I then turn to offer some ways to address these weaknesses—notably through what I term the development of a ‘sensitive ear’, and through field recording strategies—in the hope that this will allow scholars to better enfold sonic environmental aesthetics within future theoretical and applied landscape research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This “Forgotten Manuscripts” feature spotlights the folk music songbook Negro Songs of Protest, published in 1936 by white radical music collector Lawrence Gellert. In the 1930s, Gellert gained acclaim for a field archive of black musical protest compiled in the U. S. South. In the political realignments after WWII, however, Gellert fell under a cloud of disrepute for allegedly ghostwriting his documentary material. This article details elements of Gellert’s life and work in order to rehabilitate his reputation and, most important, call attention to his valuable archival collection of blues, work songs, spirituals, hollers, and hybrids from the 1920s through WWII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the presence of ‘self-reflexive narrative’ in field recording. The authors interrogate a common presumption within sonic arts practice and sound studies discourse that field recordings represent authentic, impartial and neutral documents. Historically, field recording practice has not clearly represented narratives of how, when, why and by whom a field recording is made. In contrast, the social sciences have already experienced a narrative ‘turn’ since the 1970s, which highlighted the importance of recognising the presence and role of the researcher in the field, and also in representations of fieldwork. This provides an alternative framework for understanding field recording, in considering the importance of the recordist and their relationship with their recordings. Many sonic arts practitioners have already acknowledged that the subjective, personal qualities of field recording should be embraced, highlighted and even orated in their work. The authors’ own collaborative project Thoughts in the Field further explores these ideas, by vocalising ‘self-reflexive narratives’ in real time, within field recordings. The authors’ collaborative composition, Getting Lost (2015), demonstrates the compositional potentials this approach offers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 3D-recording project was introduced into practice in 2014 by Tomsk State University during investigation of Timiryazevo burial site (5th-10th centuries AD). During the excavation, three-dimensional models of the whole archaeological site were made at each stage, as well as individual records of all artifacts. 3D recording was conducted by SFM technology. The data obtained was used for research and in work on the exhibition project "Secrets of Timiryazevo Burial Site: The Circle of Life and Death in Siberian Shamanism". The exposition centers on unveiling the meaning of the rite of burying lookalike dolls of the deceased, which was practiced by many indigenous peoples of Siberia. The exposition is designed to enable the visitor to pass through the whole cycle of knowledge extraction together with archaeologists, the "detectives of the past": from a bunch of strange miniscule objects found in the sand to reconstruction of the whole sophisticated rite of the "ultimate funeral" including the burial of the deceased's lookalike doll. The tools used to develop the topic included a stereoscopic video created with Autodesk 3D Studio MAX 2014 and displayed in the exhibition. Stereoscopic videos displayed by specialized museum equipment create a total participation effect, enabling any visitor to watch excavations step by step, in all their detail and from all perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the event 14th Istanbul Bienniel satellite program held at Greek Island of Kastellorizo in Greece on September 7 to 13, 2015 which include activities, workshops, and performances, attended by several artists, curators, and writers. The theme entitled "SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms" organized by London-based foundation Fiorucci Art Trust.