December 15, 2018

Deity Microphones China sponsored my first 4 vlogs about field recording and also gave me some sweet mics to play around with in the meantime. Thanks Deity!

This was the first location of the first episode and after we filmed it, I felt that I could be better. Luckily the cameraman was still in town for one more day so I said I wanted to do it again but better.

We went back out to the same location and it seemed quite different. The water level was higher and the sky not as blue but still beautiful nonetheless.

In the vlog, I recorded one general soundscape of the water flowing into this small inlet. As I was walking and explaining about the recording I had just done, a sound caught my ear. I ignored it the first time but then it came back. It sounded like breathing. The man made jetty we were on had cracks and as the water of the Yangtze River slipped by, it created small waves which pushed the air in and out of these cracks.

It was the most beautiful thing I had heard on the island. The breathing sounded like sleeping in bed with a loved one and their breaths slowly come in and out, not constantly, but sensually erratic. Fast, slow, long, short, it was so human. I had never realized or ever recorded how nature, not just animals, could 'breathe' or be 'alive'. This connection between man and nature that is always the basis and goal of my work could not have been more succinctly expressed. It was such a profound moment for me.

Recorded with Sonosax Minir82/ Sennheiser 8090 (ORTF)

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