GEMINILOGGBOOKOBERDADAISTICUS

The ten rules of field recording

• When you press the record button it's already too late
• You always turn off the recorder too soon
• Nevertheless, you end up recording too much material
• The wind blows
• The thing you would like to capture is far, far away
• Airplanes above and cars in the distance ruin the pristine silence
• Beautiful places are quiet
• Transients are always too loud
• The batteries run out
• No more space on disk, the tape runs out, or whatever
• You forgot to bring the recorder
• Why would anyone want to listen to these sounds in some different context and environment?
• If you have an archive, you can't find the soundfile you are looking for

Did I end up with more than ten rules? These observations are so general that I strongly suspect someone else has come up with them before me, maybe slightly differently phrased.

Field recordings can be made indoors as well, but then some of the points above might not apply. Still it's important to choose a good location. For a few years I lived in the centre of the city, next to a square with lots of people passing by all the time. It was sort of over-stimulating, but resulted in this composition:

I'm trying out this new alternative to bandcamp. It's still simple and works fine but I miss the possibility to add pdf booklets and other things in addition to the music. Bonus tracks too, because sometimes I need to keep things confidential. Between you and me, brother or sister. Here's another album with eurorack modular and field recordings from that apartment.

It's ten years ago this summer. I think the cassette can still be found, with some effort.