Tag: field recording

Milieux 1

2022

Milieux is interested in the everyday, the non-event, the ordinary. Time is given to train our attention, to raise our awareness to what lies around, to what we are part of, to what we bath in. Milieux is a proposal to contemplate the ordinary, the non-event that triggers awe.

The series is a wait, an active stillness. Its slow temporality forces one to look at their own reflection.The wait, the non-action, give time to listening. It is a mirror, a place and time for reflexivity. The calmness and the stillness do not over or constantly stimulate the attention. They offer a time to contemplate the non-event. One should explore the left-aside, the ordinary, where nothing in particular is happening. The non-action of Milieux is not a wait for things to come but an active posture where one is related to its surrounding and to oneself.

A time to rest, at the limit of boredom. Some pieces of Milieux are an exploration of the grey-zone between interest and dullness, between being awake and asleep. The pieces offer a time and space where the listener’s mind can run free, discretely carried by the sounds, which foster dream and imagination. A dream emerging from the non-event, because of the non-event. The non-event and non-action as the infinite source of possibilities. Milieux intends to give time to listening, which is also a time to think, to imagine, to create.

A Dawn Chorus in Lorraine

2019

2014, May. I spend some days at my grand-father place in Boucq, Lorraine. All is very calm, the surroundings are bursting with insects, frogs, birds and animals. I decide to set up the mics very early, to capture the night and the rising sun. The forest is just by the house, the night is very silent, and the dawn chorus suddenly emerges.

Arbre, Royaumont, Août 2019.

Recorded with a pair of Sennheiser MKH8040 on a Sonosax Minir.

A Bridge Over the Limpopo

2018

Day 9, 4.30 in the morning. We arrive at the Limpopo river just before the cicadas’ chorus. The birds are already here. A bridge is crossing the river, and I set the mics just in the middle, facing North. Some baboons are arguing in the distance.
On the other side lies Botswana, that we were exploring a few days ago. It’s the ninth day in this incredible place. It’s also approximately the number of hours I’ve slept since the beginning of the residency. I go back to the truck for a nap in the rising dawn, surrounded by birds and cicadas.

The Limpopo, Mmabolela, South Africa.

This recording have been made during the first Sonic Mmabolela, a residency / workshop organized by Francisco Lopez and James Webb in Mmabolela, South Africa. Many thanks to them.

A Baobab in the Bush

2014

Night and day under and near a baobab in the South African bush, Limpopo state, Mmabolela reserve.

1 – Night in the open land
Mmabolela reserve, around 1AM. The mics are inside a small group of bushes, in the open land behind the baobab.

2 – Dawn at the water hole
A water hole lies at a hundred meters from the baobab. It’s 5AM and a small group of deers comes to vent their thirst. As the sun appears above the horizon, swarm of birds are flying by. Some make a stop to drink, while cicadas wake up.
I grab the mics at 7AM, the sun is already high and the temperature is increasing.

3 – The baobab
A typical hot and sunny november afternoon under the baobab of Tuli. Groups of birds are playing around the mics, and a probable coqui francolin comes to feed just in front of them. The cicadas chorus resonates and turns all around, before a solitary bird takes over.

A girafe hanging in Mmabolela, Limpopo, South Africa.

These recordings have been made during the first Sonic Mmabolela, a residency / workshop organized by Francisco Lopez and James Webb. Many thanks to them.
Recorded with a pair of Sennheiser MKH8040 on a Sonosax Minir.

_

Released in 2015 by Impulsive Habitat (IHab105).

A Night in the Bush

2014

Recorded in an open area in the South African bush, Limpopo state, Mmabolela reserve.

The landscape at midnight, at the beginning of summer while the nights are still fresh. It has been raining for the past three days and the temperature have dropped.
The place is very open. Dead trees with fantastic forms populate the land. The microphones are under one of these.

Mmabolela, Limpopo, South Africa.

This recording was made during the first Sonic Mmabolela, a residency / workshop organized by Francisco Lopez and James Webb. Many thanks to them.

Recorded with a pair of Sennheiser MKH8040 on a Sonosax Minir.

_

Released by Very Quiet Records in 2014 (VQRS012).