This is the final part that will conclude my series on different ice movements captured this winter. In Pt. 1 you could hear ice building up during early winter. In Pt. 2 ice movements was captured in the depths of winter, from a couple of different perspectives.
In the third part you’ll hear a captured moment in the disintegrating process of ice, going from solid to liquid form.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a + Sennheiser ME64 -> Sound Devices 702
Last week I had some chances to capture sounds of ice down by the lake, this time from some different perspectives.
First out is a recording I made last Saturday with my NT1-A’s in a stereo array. It’s recorded just after midnight. The conditions were good, with temperatures dropping to below -15° Celsius and no wind. The only disturbing element were an aircraft that just wouldn’t go away. I tried to wait it out for more than an hour but finally gave in and made the recording anyway, hence the low-frequency hum coming from the right. As in the case with my earlier ice recording this year I did some cut and paste this time as well, the original recording spans about 30 minutes. I really find some of these sounds to be very nightmarish.
Please use headphones
Geek note: 2xRøde NT1-A’s (ORTF, 17cm spacing, angled 110°)-> Sound Devices 702
The other three recordings were made yesterday. As me and Matilda were on our way home after a day of ice skating on the lake I noticed some intense ice movements. At home I switched the skating gear in favour of the recording gear and then headed back down to the lake. The sun was setting as I arrived and some guys that had been out ice fishing on the middle of the lake were leaving. So I went over there and used one of their holes to get below the sheet of ice with my hydrophone. These recordings are not manipulated in any way, the activity going on where so intense I could actually feel the ice moving underneath me.
First of is a short recording made with the hydrophone as a contact mic. As you probably notice the microphone’s self noise is very evident due to high gain:
Geek note: Aquarian H2a (+contact mic adapter) -> Sound Devices 702
In the second recording the hydrophone is lowered about 10 cm’s into the water, centering it in the 20 cm thick layer of ice. Be advised that some of the sounds in this recording are very loud.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sound Devices 702
In the last recording the hydrophone is lowered about 1 meter into the water, positioning it about 40 cm’s below the sheet of ice.
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sound Devices 702
Of these three hydrophonic recordings I’m most fond of the last one as you’re able to hear distant sounds as well as close by cracks very clearly. It’s also a bit warmer to the tone than the second one. I just wish I had a second hydrophone for stereo recordings.
Snow and ice. Winter has finally come. I think that one of the more encouraging sounds to record this time of year is ice. Ever-changing through unending variations, ice always brings you new dimensions to listen to. This is evident through the captures of ice by the recordists working with BBC’s series Frozen planet. My contribution is a bit more modest:
You might need to turn up the volume a bit, use headphones for best result
Geek note: Aquarian H2a -> Sound Devices 702
The sounds heard above are all recorded using a contact mic on the frozen lake just next to our cabin. The original recording is about one hour, the two and a half minutes above is the result of some rearranging, cut and paste and a load of fades. No effects were added, except some slight hiss reduction in post as I had to crank up the gain quite a lot while recording. There’s one layer of sound playing at a time. Even though there where extended moments of “silence” during the hour or so I recorded there where also some very lively minutes with cracks and lots of ray guns going off.
A lot have happened since my last post. My life is in some turmoil with a new city to grasp, new workplace(s) and nowhere permanent to stay at the moment. Thankfully our living situation is finally about to get solved. Right now we’re staying at Matildas aunts place while waiting to gain access to a small cabin in the forests outside Göteborg. We’ll move there this upcoming weekend so the waiting won’t be that long. It will surely be nice to have a place to call home again.
Anyhow, here’s an audio collage consisting of recordings from some of the places that greets you as you enter Göteborg by train or bus.
(Please use headphones)
Geek note: Soundman OKM-II Classic -> Sony PCM-D50
As soon as we settle in and get a stable internet connection up and running I will start uploading some of the sounds surrounding our new home.
I wish you all a good start to the new year, I hope and think that mine will be!
My dear friend Jurko Haltuu recently released a very limited CD-r on the label Funeral Fog Records. It’s a 44 minutes long drone piece that’s based on one of my earlier recordings.
Very dark and emotional, just as I like it. Have a listen below.
Ljuset Kommer Aldrig Åter (The Light Will Never Return) is a 44 minutes and 6 seconds long piece of music, composed, looped and processed by Jurko Haltuu. All sounds are based on a 2 minute & 47 seconds long field recording made by Magnus Natt och Dag in his car just outside Halmstad on the Swedish west coast. Sunday 28 August 2011.
…some of you might wonder.
Due to some changes in my life I haven’t been able to update the blog, or go out soundhunting, as often as I would have wanted. As I’ve been taking up studying besides work there’s little time to do anything at all except reading, writing and working at the moment.
This will hopefully change pretty soon as I’ve decided to quit my job in a couple of months and eventually move from Malmö. My next city to call home will be Göteborg (Gothenburg), situated about 250 km up north along the coast from where I’m living now. Matilda already moved there and I’m planning to follow her as soon as possible.
It feels kind of sad to leave this city with all its fantastic people, wonderful sounds and its possibilities when it comes to all kinds of experimental cultural expressions. I will definitely miss Malmö.
At the same time I must say that I feel excited to find entirely new environments and soundscapes to explore, which I hopefully will be able to do with more time on my hands. And of course, my old friends will still be here and new ones will hopefully be added. All in all I think this marks the start of something good.
With that said I also have a short recording for you. It’s a noise jam “composed” on my way home from Matilda just after I helped her move north. As I had forgotten my ipod in Malmö I eventually got bored with the monotonous traffic noise surrounding me on the highway so I tried to get our malfunctioning car radio to work. It didn’t turn out that well so I switched from the FM-band to the AM-band in pure desperation at the very moment I drove into a hailstorm. As I turned on the wipers I noticed how the sound they made became amplified through the stereo. Luckily enough I had my portable recorder in a bag beside me so I grabbed for it and pressed rec. This is what I got:
Geek note: Sony PCM-D50 (mics spread 120 degrees)
Going out to the countryside for a relaxing vacation can be an unexpectedly noisy experience. The barn in the picture below is where my grandparents sheep are housed at night during the colder seasons, but it turned out to be far from deserted even this time of year. Swallows flew back and forth, kittens were playing in the loft, a couple of pigeons was going about their business and flies buzzed around.
Geek note: 2 x Røde NT1-As (ORTF, 17 cms spacing, 110 degrees) -> Sound Devices 702
By the end of last week the weather got more dramatic with hard winds blowing in from Skagerak, gaining their strength from the Atlantic ocean. I headed up on crest west of the farm, from where you have a nice view of the ocean below.
On the top of the crest is an old cairn in which I placed my stereo rig in protection from the wind.
If you think that the stereo width sounds somewhat flat it’s because the placement within the cairns sheltering walls. This location was the only option for making the recording as the gusts where battering down hard from all directions. Despite this I must say that I’m pretty satisfied with the results.
Geek note: 2 x Røde NT1-As (ORTF, 17 cms spacing, 110 degrees) -> Sound Devices 702 (Low-cut filter on; 80Hz – 18dB/oct)
Me and Matilda spent last week in and around Karlshamn where we took care of Stella, her parents dog, while they where abroad. The first couple of days we stayed at a friends place on a small island called Hallö, situated about 15 minutes by boat of the mainland. At first thought islands offer great opportunities when it comes to recording nature soundscapes as you don’t have to worry about cars ruining your set. On the other hand boats tends to be at least as noisy and sounds carries easily over open space. So to avoid disturbing noises I got up early one morning to record some dawn choruses as well as ambience down by the cliffs. The rumble that’s audible in the background in both recordings is waves that breaks further out at sea.
The recording of the dawn chorus below is made at the the south side of Hallö, where the vegetation was denser than on the rest of the island:
Geek note: 2 x Røde NT1-A’s (ORTF, 17 cm spacing, 110 degrees) -> Sound Devices 702
Down by the cliffs on the islands north side I got the opportunity to watch (and listen to) a fisherman emptying his nets some hundred meters out at sea. Trailing behind him where numerous of fish terns, herring gulls and sea gulls. This recording consists of some of the more common sounds that you hear when spending time in the Swedish archipelago.
Geek note: 2 x Røde NT1-A’s (ORTF, 17 cm spacing, 110 degrees) -> Sound Devices 702
Last Saturday a huge thunderstorm moved in over Copenhagen causing flooded streets, blackouts and demolished cell towers as 150mm of rain fell within a few hours. That amount of rainfall is extreme here as it usually takes a period of three months to get up to 150mm. On this side of the strait we could hear some of the thunder rolling in, so after getting home from work I placed my mics on the balcony and recorded for about half an hour. Here are some extracts.
Geek note: 2 x Røde NT1-A’s (ORTF, 17 cms spacing, 110 degrees) -> Sound Devices 702
As you can hear there are some rattling sounds to be heard during the loudest thunderclaps, I’m not sure if this is the product of the NT1-A’s being overloaded or if it’s something rattling on the balcony. Do any of you with experience of recording with large-diaphragm microphones know if it might be an issue using these mics while recording loud noises containing low frequencys? Would I be better off using for example a pair of AT-4041?
Next to our laundry room this old beauty resides (alright it’s not the sexiest of all photos, but it’ll give you an idea of how it looks).
It’s a stone mangle made here in Malmö at A.T. Antonssons Mangelfabrik in the 1950’s. Antonssons mangle factory shut down in the late 80’s as the industrial decline had stomped down hard on Malmö for decades, so entering our laundry room is somewhat like stepping into a small museum displaying some of this city’s former glory of industrial pride.
I can’t help but being fascinated by it still standing there in working condition after all those years. Its weight at about 1500kg might be part of the explanation, but I doubt that anyone is actually using it today.
Some days ago I decided to give it a go in front of my mics. I love the sound of old mechanical machinery and I certainly didn’t get dissapointed by its clonks and creaks.
Geek note: 2 x Røde NT1-A’s (ORTF-position, 17cms spacing, 110 degrees) -> Sound Devices 702
inovember 
