Alan, a brain surgeon from Scotland now a resident in the Australian bush, attached contact mics to a series of broken telegraph wires on his land and over time recorded the spontaneous singing and harmonics of the wires. He laid the recordings over one another to create compositions, as you hear here. The telegraphs are long gone, alas. But we have these recordings!
these are actually recorded by placing contact mics on long wires. all natural sound. "These tracks were constructed in 1988 ("Primal Image") and 1986 ("Beauty") as a series of segments averaging several minutes each, with transitional overdubs at the seams, and with heavy use of EQ for harmonic balance and noise reduction. About 20 hours of source material was recorded using contact microphones on telephone wires over a cumulative period of 10 days in November 1981 ("Primal Image").."
Anyone have suggestions for similar stuff? I mean like field recordings that are more on the experimental and compositional side. Doesn't necessarily have to be heavily manipulated like this, but it still needs to be more than just recordings of birds chirping.
Toshiya Tsunoda does really astonishing things with mic placement in novel locations, and no processing. (titles like "Vibration of the mooring rope of a fishing boat at anchor")
These two pages contain a lot of information about Alan Lamb and his techniques: www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/22CAC/lamb.html and www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/web/biogs/P000277b.htm . Also: ambientmusicguide.com/a-z-essential-albums/alan-lamb/ and www.discogs.com/Alan-Lamb-Archival-Recordings-Primal-Image-Beauty/release/170796 , which lists Dorobo 008 CDs for sale. The photos in the video are of power cables, which have a central steel core for strength and multiple aluminium cores for conductivity. These are stiff, thick and acoustically dead compared to the ~3mm galvanized steel single strand telephone wires which Alan Lanb used. These wires are no different from steel fencing wire, as far as I know. For instance: www.qhatlas.com.au/photograph/redundant-telephone-wires-chinchilla-shire-1979 . The "piioong" sounds are an example of a chirped impulse sound. The impulse is all frequencies in a very short time, due to something hitting the wire. Due to the stiffness of the wire, the higher frequencies travel faster and arrive at the distant pickup earlier than the lower frequencies, so we hear the original click transformed into a downwards sweeping tone. You can do this at home with a steel Slinky hooked near the end of your pinky, with the end in your ear canal, while standing on a chair and having someone gently touch the dangling end with a coin. For an extreme instance of chirp in steel wires: www.firstpr.com.au/slinky/audio/ . However, these are just isolated sounds - not at all comparable with Alan Lamb's extraordinary compositions.
Sounds like the score to a multi-car pile up presented in super slow motion, culminating in the driver of the last car having their eye pierced by a shard of windshield. Yeah...im fucked up. Heard it all before.
![Lp. Последняя Реальность #107 РОДНОЙ ДОМ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IK3QKzKUlHM/mqdefault.jpg)
Alan, a brain surgeon from Scotland now a resident in the Australian bush, attached contact mics to a series of broken telegraph wires on his land and over time recorded the spontaneous singing and harmonics of the wires. He laid the recordings over one another to create compositions, as you hear here. The telegraphs are long gone, alas. But we have these recordings!
un grandissimo !!!!! speciale e unico alan lamb !!!
these are actually recorded by placing contact mics on long wires. all natural sound.
"These tracks were constructed in 1988 ("Primal Image") and 1986 ("Beauty") as a series of segments averaging several minutes each, with transitional overdubs at the seams, and with heavy use of EQ for harmonic balance and noise reduction. About 20 hours of source material was recorded using contact microphones on telephone wires over a cumulative period of 10 days in November 1981 ("Primal Image").."
This is a commentary written by Alan Lamb explaining his approach: www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/web/biogs/P000277b.htm
Simon Sellars' book Applied Ballardianism brought me here - interesting read for those of us who like this kind of thing
great music, thank you
Thanks for posting. First time I've found this in 20 years
Amazing. Thanks for posting.
thanx for posting
Super Video, ich wünsche mir mehr davon!
Man, this is so good. Having a hard time trying to track a copy of the cd down though.
Mahler Haze If you are still looking for one www.discogs.com/Alan-Lamb-Archival-Recordings-Primal-Image-Beauty/release/170796
published by Dorobo which was run by Darren Verhagen, now at RMIT University, Melbourne. If still interested, contact him
saw this guy on wikipedia
same here. glad to have found him.
Hah, same.
Anyone have suggestions for similar stuff? I mean like field recordings that are more on the experimental and compositional side. Doesn't necessarily have to be heavily manipulated like this, but it still needs to be more than just recordings of birds chirping.
This is a very similar zone: ua-cam.com/video/5qBoz2_Y6Zk/v-deo.html and much of Jeph Jerman's work would fit your description.
Try Aube, although all of his recordings are heavily manipulated
You might try Thomas Köner, but he's really minimalist, like the quieter parts of this piece.
Toshiya Tsunoda does really astonishing things with mic placement in novel locations, and no processing. (titles like "Vibration of the mooring rope of a fishing boat at anchor")
These two pages contain a lot of information about Alan Lamb and his techniques: www.rainerlinz.net/NMA/22CAC/lamb.html and www.sounddesign.unimelb.edu.au/web/biogs/P000277b.htm . Also: ambientmusicguide.com/a-z-essential-albums/alan-lamb/ and www.discogs.com/Alan-Lamb-Archival-Recordings-Primal-Image-Beauty/release/170796 , which lists Dorobo 008 CDs for sale.
The photos in the video are of power cables, which have a central steel core for strength and multiple aluminium cores for conductivity. These are stiff, thick and acoustically dead compared to the ~3mm galvanized steel single strand telephone wires which Alan Lanb used. These wires are no different from steel fencing wire, as far as I know. For instance: www.qhatlas.com.au/photograph/redundant-telephone-wires-chinchilla-shire-1979 .
The "piioong" sounds are an example of a chirped impulse sound. The impulse is all frequencies in a very short time, due to something hitting the wire. Due to the stiffness of the wire, the higher frequencies travel faster and arrive at the distant pickup earlier than the lower frequencies, so we hear the original click transformed into a downwards sweeping tone. You can do this at home with a steel Slinky hooked near the end of your pinky, with the end in your ear canal, while standing on a chair and having someone gently touch the dangling end with a coin. For an extreme instance of chirp in steel wires: www.firstpr.com.au/slinky/audio/ . However, these are just isolated sounds - not at all comparable with Alan Lamb's extraordinary compositions.
Hey Hugo, I've met Alan a couple of times. He lives in Perth, Western Australia. I am sorry to inform you, that he is the early stages of Alzheimer's
Does anyone know how to contact Alan Lamb?
By wire.
He has been "contacted"
wind passing telephone wires
Sounds like the score to a multi-car pile up presented in super slow motion, culminating in the driver of the last car having their eye pierced by a shard of windshield.
Yeah...im fucked up. Heard it all before.