Music of Sound

My favourite sonic memory from travel is:

My morning ritual: transferring data off four devices.
First to the laptop, then cloning to two external drives….

Alofaaga Blowholes, Taga Village – I was looking forward to recording these and I sure wasn’t disappointed! I timed it right for the tides: when a decent wave came in the main blow hole would send a jet of water 25m up to into the air! On the first few surges sound ramped from barely audible to red lighting in an instant! A few tweaks and I rolled for another 20minutes, shooting video some of the time… And even though I was standing well back I still got a few adrenaline surges at the sheer power of some of the waves – I was ready to grab my kit and run if one broke right over… so thats another vid I’ll upload when I’ve been home long enough to sync it up!

Stayed in Asau for the night

Dusk

Shooting bulb exposures at dusk/night…

Hunting geckos!

and later…

After data transfer this morning I checked total data so far: 137GB!

“Echo locating birds” was all I needed to know to add this to my list of stops on Savaii

This photo is of the entrance to the cave referred to in the sign – its well developed with steps & electric light, but by the time we got in there & heard some Swiftlets they all flew past us & the cave was quiet. So the guy who was the guide there took me to another cave, 10 minutes through bush with no discernable track, then into a cave entrance small enough that I had to take my backpack off… It opened into a big long cave, so I set up my mics with one pair facing deep into the cave and the stereo mic pointing in the direction of the entrance. My guide went way further down the cave, so far his torch light couldn’t be seen…. Five minutes later and I heard the clicking of an approaching Swiftlet – its clicks accelerating and decelerating, then dopplering right past my mics!! I recorded for another ten minutes, just totally amazed at this beautiful sound. As I understand it bats use ultrasonic sound to locate themselves but these birds were audibly clicking, like little geiger counters – I’ll upload some to soundcloud so you can hear them, I can’t wait to hear the quad dopplers in my studio! One of those moments I’ll never forget – my guide said I was the first tourist to ever go to that cave….

Goodbye Savaii…

Spent an hour or so at Tufutafoe, Falealupo Peninsula, Savaii
(No sound was recorded here, but the memory is indelibly imprinted – eerily quiet & still)
Was listening to Codex off the new Radiohead album while transferring these photos…
The place & the music are now linked, permanently…

Radiohead – Codex by mariocon

Bliss!

These buses are the main form of transport in Samoa for a lot of people and they make me smile every time I see one approaching; apart from the great paint & decorations they always, and I mean always, have loud subby music booming from them. The night I stayed at Manunu Village I was woken at 6.30am by the distant bassline of the first bus of the day… as it got closer I started to assimilate the beat it was playing, then fell back asleep…

It might not look that hot but the thermometer in the car said it was 35 degrees! I set up the mics, hit record & lay down on the grass… but within about 3 minutes I just about passed out from the heat & had to retreat to the shade…. music for insects….

Recording curfew #2 at Manunu Village

Using the rental car as a mic stand – Le Mafa Pass Road

Taelefaga, the mics are pointed into a beautiful wide valley, looking down to Fagaloa Bay

Catching the ferry to Savaii – the water is even more beautifully turquoize than these photos!

My first morning on Savaii I was woken before dawn by this pinky orange glow – the fale I stayed in was built out over the water of a lagoon & it faced the sunrise so I purposefully left the curtains wide open…. I woke just long enough to take this photo, and to then set a timelapse going… A few downpours passed over while my timelapse was running and watching it afterwards it is so beautiful to see the surface of the lagoon pixelate and then smooth out again…. will upload it when I’m home… and have found the right sound to sync…

The most peaceful sound I can remember is: