[This is an edited version of the July 28th blog post on my MySpace Music profile, and a follow-up to the July 9th post here.]

On July 1st I began work on new project called the World Listening Project. It was formed by small group of musicians and sonic artists with the initial goal of collecting field recordings from every country in the world and then presenting them on a web-based sound map for the Chicago Calling Festival (October 1–11, 2008). The festival director, Dan Godston cited R. Murray Schafer’s ideas and the World Soundscape Project as inspiration, as well as the work of Bernie Krausse of Wild Sanctuary. We’re excited have Bernie and Katherine  providing their ideas and support to the World Listening Project as we begin.

On the left is a proposed logo for the WLP, designed by Noé Cuellar.

Many sound mapping sites and interfaces exist on the web, among those I’ve noted often are SoundTransit, Locus Sonus Audio Streaming Project Map, and the recent Mississauga Sound Map. With this in mind our initial mission, as stated above, is now under discussion. Rather than being solely a field recording and sound map website, a broader range of practices, areas of investigation, and modes of presentation are being considered. The discussion on revising the WLP’s mission is public. Your participation may help if you subscribe to the World Listening Project’s (Yahoo! Group) listserv.

Among the ideas for project may include research and initiating geo-tagged audio projects, such as on Freesound.org. The WLP can promote investigations into the meaning, methods, and relations of information gathering through sound. We are also registering a non-profit organization to support this effort. Happily, we have many noteworthy artists and thinkers participating in this discussion. And, the membership of the listserv continues to grow.

I can mention many more fields of knowledge and practice that the World Listening Project can encompass, but I’d like to keep this post brief. Your participation can play a important role influencing the future of practices involving sound and listening in and of the world. If you wish to learn more about the discussion, or even join the worldlistening Yahoo! Group, please visit this link: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/worldlistening/

I’m working on a new project initiated by Dan Godston called the World Listening Project. What is it?

The goals of the World Listening Project are to collect field recordings from every country on earth, to create a sonic map of the world, and to archive those recordings on a website. Many of the recordings for WLP have already been recorded, but many more will be recorded and archived. The WLP website is a work in progress, and it will be part of the Third Annual Chicago Calling Arts Festival (October 1–12, 2008). It will continue to be developed into the future.

The Chicago Calling festival was started by Dan Godston. A Yahoo! Group called worldlisteningproject is where a large and growing number of people are joining together on the Internet to realize the World Listening Project. Among the group’s esteemed members we have the natural soundscape researcher and recordist, Bernie Krausse. He is a musician, ecologist, and author who has been working in the field of natural soundscape recording since 1968. Bernie is author of several books, the latest is Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of Natural Soundscapes (Wilderness Press, 2002). Visit his website Wild Sanctuary to learn more about his work and media company. Bernie has a sound map here: http://earth.wildsanctuary.com/

In addition to the worldlisteningproject Yahoo! Group, Dan Godston has started a World Listening Project blog: http://worldlisteningproject.blogspot.com/

Use this link to join the Yahoo! Group:

Visit this link for an update on the World Listening Project.

Here is a download link to a 6-minute, 19-second excerpt from my binaural recording of this year’s unofficial 4th of July fireworks displays happening all around my home on the west side of Chicago (64 MB WAV file): https://download.yousendit.com/RXNoeFVRcG9Fc0xIRGc9PQ

I recorded this on my old Sony TCD-D7 DAT “Walkman” with my new in-ear binaural mics from Sound Professionals. Last year I recorded the fireworks with an AT-822 placed in a stationary position on the front porch. This year my partner and I went for a walk
around the block, past the Conservatory, into to Garfield Park and back.

The excerpt I selected to upload for you is fairly rich with activity. Aside from the near and distant sounds of fireworks all around, you’ll hear:

• cars passing
• several overly excited little children with toy horns
• interesting echoes of the fireworks bursts that bounce off the
  railroad viaduct to create unusual “chirping” sounds

As we walk underneath the viaduct you can hear the acoustics change from
open air to a steel and stone passage way and out while the children
play ahead of us, cars pass at our side, and the freight train rumbles
overhead.

This link has limited number of downloads, available on YouSendIt.com until July 20 (unless I move it to another site).

Rarebit

by Steve Barsotti and Eric Leonardson

Transparency CD0125

Performed and recorded with Steve Barsotti at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. From 1994 until 1999 we performed as a duo, and with other local and internationally known artists, including Dan Burke (Illusion of Safety), Carol Genetti, Fergus Kelly, Tatsu Aoki, Chris Heenan, Yuko Nexus6, Yasuhiro Otani, Satoru Wono, Claude Wiley, and many more.

Description:

Rarebit is the culmination of a four-year project in electroacoustic music by sound artists and instrument inventors Steve Barsotti and Eric Leonardson. Their self-built instruments produce remarkable sounds that belie their humble origin. Barsotti and Leonardson’s sense of musical form arises from their deep attention to the individual essences of sounds, rather than the conventional grid of harmony and meter. What results is abstract sound composition that possesses a communicative style. Rarebit will draw comparisons to the sound palettes and ethereal soundscapes of such intrepid purveyors of “left field” and exploratory music as Hal Rammel, Hugh Davies, and Bob Rutman. Nine tracks. Running time 72 minutes.

Rarebit can be purchased from Transparency for $15 ($12 plus $3 postage) to meridianavenue@yahoo.com via PayPal.

Listen to the first Chicago Phonographers’ performance at Brown Rice via WAV stream or download the MP3 file. Available now, thanks to Joshua Manchester on this web page www.joshuamanchester.com/ChiPhon.html

Chicago Phonography with Todd Carter, Chad Clark, Chris Hammes, Michael Hartmann, Eric Leonardson, Joshua Manchester, Robert Pleshar, Patrick Scott, Aaron Zarzutzki, and Philip von Zweck.

Brown Rice

4432 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago IL 60625
www.brownricemusic.org

9:00 p.m. (Doors open 30 minutes before show)
$6 suggested donation, $4 for students

Directions: Brown Rice is small storefront located a half block north of the Montrose-Kedzie intersection, a few blocks south of the Kedzie station on the CTA Brown Line. There is a small sign over the entrance that reads “Perfect”. View Map.

Background: Initiated by Chad Clark through the chi-improv Yahoo! Group, Chicago Phonography is a way to gather people interested in producing and broadcasting unprocessed field recordings (made in and around Chicago) as an ensemble in a context of live improvisation. This group has never performed together before and is inspired, in part, by the Seattle Phonographers’ Union.

Choice quote: “nature performs and we provide the secretarial services”—R. Murray Schafer