Field Recordings T-Shirt (Black)

Field Recording

Field recording is the practice of capturing audio outside of a traditional studio environment, often in natural, urban, or industrial settings. It involves using portable recording equipment to document real-world sounds as they occur. These recordings might include bird songs in a forest, the rumble of a subway station, the chatter of a bustling market, or even the subtle rustle of leaves in the wind. Field recording is widely used across various disciplines, including music production, film sound design, scientific research, and sound art.

In Practise

The use of field recording is far and wide. We first stumbled upon the use of Field Recording in electronic music through Black Merlin's iconic album Hypnotik Tradisi where the artist travelled through landscapes in Indonesia and neighbouring islands of Bali and recorded sounds of rituals, bamboo, gamelan, gongs and the waves crashing on the coast. Mixed in with hypnotic sub bass, the record featured a couple of pure field recording tracks as well as more techno-driven ones.

Another project we found fascinating was Aural Archipelago, a not-for-profit organisation that documents and archives sounds across Indonesia, including folk song, recordings of traditional instruments as well as sounds of jungles.

Other notable mentions include Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement and Akaritchalerm Kalayanamitr (Selected soundworks from the cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul).

What Makes Field Recording Cool

In this day and age of heavily produced and pristinely studio recorded music, we've overlooked nature as the birthplace of music. Birdsong, the souds of crickets and leaves rustling were considered music back then to our ancestors. These sounds signified moments of peace and calm for them as it was used to tell when a storm has passed for instance. And passed down through generations, whenever we listen to recordings of nature, a sense of calm almost immediately fills us as our bodies attune itself back to the earth.

The practise of field recording is therefore commonly used in sound therapy such as in meditation as it helps people retreat from the hustle and bustle of life by tuning in to nature.