Ingredients of a Soundscape: A Sonic Platter
Welcome to Ingredients of a Soundscape (01), written by monthly Saturday show host Ella, from Hatching.
Join me in honouring Kitchen Radio, by dissecting the sonic platter each month through Flavour, Texture and Nourishment.
An unofficial definition of Soundscapes:
A constant orchestra, a collection, an unidentified, persistent album which exists only to an earswitness – and often, it finds you without quest. No dusk nor dawn, rather an acknowledgement, an act of tuning into the station.
[...] a murmur, a gentle, rhythmic pulse
A collection of ingredients – a platter of goodness to be consumed.
Dear reader, consider how the pairing of ingredients can activate subtle notes -– a potion, a remedy, a longed for delicacy. Sound, too. The synergistic melody of texture, flavour and nourishment.
Ambient lullabies, soundscapes, fragmented field recordings and symbiotic sounds invite subtle noises, or all encompassing sounds to emerge — summoning those hidden in the caves of our ear canals to reveal themselves.
A collection of ingredients – a platter of goodness to be listened to. Organic, rich and rotten.
Flavour - the way in which something tastes
R. Murphy Schrafer’s work in the 60’s explored Soundscapes. I was particularly inspired by the International Sound Preference Survey, which invited people to identify sounds as pleasant or unpleasant.
Gentle bubbles meeting the surface of a drink – pleasant.
The extractor fan – unpleasant.
Pepper squeezing its way through a wooden mill – pleasant.
Clinking of cutlery – unpleasant.
*My preference. I invite you to identify sounds you find pleasant and unpleasant.
Like R. Murphy Schafer, Sydney Spann also explores soundscapes.
Texture — the way in which a surface, substance or sound feels
Sydney Spann, an artist based in NY, develops a personal archive of field recordings. Spann’s work is a beautiful patchwork of complex texture yet delicate, subtle and soothing sounds.
In Spann’s words:
‘My materials are voice, melodies, processed and unprocessed recordings made with a field recorder, synthesis, digital delay pedal, electromagnetic microphone, roland sp 404, and FM baby monitors (noise and a latent surveillance system). Synthesis, monitors, and electromagnetic fields are part of the infrastructure of our world, and they are perhaps analogous or diagonal or in opposition to infrastructures of care. [...] The materials are also informed by my acquired taste for dry, textured, minimal, melodic, harmonically rich, understated but impactful music.’
Listen to Spann’s album (released 8.09.23) Sending Up A Spiral Of. Or, listen here, where I sprinkled some of Spann’s work into my first Kitchen show, Hatching 01.
Spann’s work is oozing with substance like a fresh, dewy Beefsteak Fungus (Fistulina hepatica).
Beefsteak Fungus (Fistulina hepatica)
Speaking further on nourishment, Ambient music cannot be mentioned without Sofie Birch’s, Ambient Abracadabra show on NTS Radio.
Nourishment – a necessity of growth
Birch’s show encourages collaboration. A collection of released and unreleased soundscapes, recommendations of ambient tracks and field recordings from listeners. In a recent show, Birch speaks of collaboration and how the show is evolving.
“It feels like I am creating some kind of audio-garden. Yeah, it feels like a garden, with different flowers and flavours. Mm, mm-mh.”
Birch’s show is a delicate cauldron of nourishing and collaborative soup. Silky yet chunky and full bodied.
So, whether you are reading this on a bus, cooking or out foraging – tune into the station and enter the portal of your personal sonicscape. It is waiting for you and will follow you, forevermore.
Until next time, Ella.
