Monday, December 24, 2007

mouchette and some french field recordings








robert bresson: mouchette, 1967


examples of french field recordings:


the work of yannick dauby,
sound artist:
select discography:
-songs of a few cicadas from taiwan, kalerne temporary editions, 2007
-songs of a few crickets from europe, kalerne temporary editions, 2007
-songs of a few amphibians from taiwan, kalerne temporary editions, 2007
-février, cherry music, 2006 (my favourite from the list)
-sarus cranes circling above, boxmedia, 2004
-symetry never happens in nature (entrelacs project with michael northam), s/r, 2004
-low valley, edition..., 2004
-bruissements (on another kind of language: dedicated to andrei tarkovsky comp.), and/oar, 2003
-une topographie sonore... (from thomas koner's zyklop), mille plateaux, 2003
-sundew (on infernal proteus comp.), the ajna offensive, 2002
-descendre cinq lacs au travers d'une voilé (with alio die), aqua, 1998

the work of eric la casa, sound artist:
select discography:
-air.ratio, 2007
-cci 1 (on intransitive twenty-three comp.), intransitive recordings, 2004
-fonderie. paccard, collectif & cie, 2001
(based on recordings from the site of a foundry for making bells in annecy, france)

the work of eric cordier, sound artist:
select discography:
-osorezan: selected field recording 1993 - 2007, herbal international, 2007
-breizhiselad, erewhon, 2006


("yvonne loriod would accompanied birdsong expeditions with a tape recorder." from messiaen by peter hill and nigel simeone)

the ornithological activities of olivier messiaen (bird notation and recording):

"the catalogue d'oiseaux ostensibly returns to the naturalist intentions of portraying birds- all french birds- in their habitats, but there are the same structures of alternation and palindrome, along with further infiltrations of non-birdsong material. usually this material is justified as illustrative, but the mechanisms of illustration are codes peculiar to messiaen, the most important being his equivalence of colour and harmony."
(from modern music and after: directions since 1945 by paul griffiths, page 124)

"in his transcriptions, based on notation in the field, he tried to convey the melodies, rhythms and timbres of many different bird songs, and some of his later works were created very largely from this natural material.
the catalogue d'oiseaux for piano (1956-8), for example, is a collection of pieces, each painting a sound picture of a bird in its habitat, together with its companions, often at a particular time of day."
(from modern music: a concise history by paul griffiths, page 125)

"for me, the only real music has always existed in the sounds of nature... the harmony of wind in tress, the rhythm of waves on the sea, the timbre of raindrops, of breaking branches, of stones struck together, the different cries of animals are the true music as far as i am concerned." (this passage describes the bresson soundtrack very well)
(from olivier messiaen: music and color, conversations with claude samuel, page 135-139)

bell recordings:
jean-luc herelle: pastoral bells (clarines et sonnailles), sittelle, 1996
(recordings of bells worn by herds of cows and goats)

(i encourage listening to the robert bresson soundtrack while reading this post, "discovered" using techniques pioneered by steve roden)

8 comments:

sroden said...

i'm glad to be known to have pioneered something :-)

is the samuels book the best regarding messiaen's birdings? i've wanted to take the plunge but leery of too much traditional music theory...

great quotes ye have posted...

Milena said...

Happy Holidays Matthew! *hugs*

the art of memory said...

merry holidays to you both.
i like the messiaen book, has some good birdtalk, and the new yale bio is not bad either.
i wonder if there is a better one out there though.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I linked to this post of yours on my blog this morning. You might get some additional visitors in the following days. I really love this 'Mouchette' soundtrack you upped. I'm totally impressed by the vivid presence of the field recording and the 'nearness' of the sound. Are you familiar with Luc Ferrari's 'Petite Symphonie Intuitive' and his other field recording-based compositions? It's really surprising how it sounds similar.
I hope you'll offer more soundtracks like these -- a Béla Tarr, maybe, think SatanTango's opening sequence. Thanks from France.

the art of memory said...

thanks, i plan to add more soundtracks, but there is a tarr soundtrack cd with the bells which is quite good.

c said...

Thanks for the link. The Mouchette soundtrack is precious :)

zazie said...

It's wonderfull but I can't make the download of mouchette...

":O?

the art of memory said...

thanks c.
she is wonderful, yes.

and zazie,
i just tried her, and she works fine, mouchette that is.
i can add her on another upload deal if you can't get it going proper.