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one-minute
vacations: year one What
follows are the first year's worth of one-minute vacations.
If
you like what you hear, I encourage you to purchase
a copy of the compilation CD that collects these recordings: all
profit from the sale of the CD (about 85% of the cost) goes to charity.
The
compilation netted $250 for charity
in 2003; this was donated to Heifer
International.
Deepest
gratitude to the year's contributors, who shared their recordings
with us, and who agreed to donate the profits of their work to charity.
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'"Beyond
the Wild Wood comes the Wild World," said
the Rat. "And that's something
that doesn't matter,
either to you or me. I've never been there,
and I'm
never going, nor you either,
if you've got any sense at all..."'
(Kenneth
Grahame) | |
 |  |  |
| january
13, 2003 | 1.4
MB |
'Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico. The marimba is two guys who play at the weekly Ajijic
tianguis, or open air market. They show up, set up the marimba, play about five
tunes, collect money, and then bolt to God only knows where. Their playing is
not the best, but I just love marimba, and for fifty cents (5 pesos) donation
I figure it is better than a jukebox...' This vacation was contributed by Sandy
Noyes. (More sound from Mexico can be found here,
at Kunstradio.) |
| january
6, 2003 | 1.4
MB | 'This
year, 1 January 2003; a dive in the North Sea, the Netherlands. Every year we
have this crazy custom to jump in the NorthSea which is very cold then. Only 10,000
people take part in this. People have to get motivated a bit and they do that
by shouting and making music before making the jump. Because it was raining I
only recorded in the big tent, look at this.
It was freezing cold...' So writes Nick
Gordon, the first contributor of the new year! |
| december
30, 2002 | 1.5
MB |
In memorium, in so many ways. This recording comes from sound artist Kenneth
Kirschner, who made a series of field recordings around New York in 2000 and
2001 with a tape recorder and tie-clip microphone. About the recording excerpted
here at slightly over a minute, he writes, '[This] recording, while the very lowest
quality of the bunch, is actually the most historically interesting. I distinctly
recall walking up Church Street just north of Liberty, though I've never been
able to go back to verify this: the area was destroyed several months later in
the September 11 attacks. While there's no way to know for certain what's what
in the recordings, the tape likely contains the sounds of the World Trade Center,
and I've always thought of the piece derived from it as a sort of retroactive
requiem.' | | december
23, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
A
chilly night in Kalaw, a few days before Christmas, 2000. In the Shan state hills
of Burma, horse carts with bells and ghost-plumes of breathe lend an unexpectedly
Dickensian atmosphere to an early evening stroll: a hard way of life painted romantic
by our nostalgia. A few hundred yards from our hotel, the unexpected sound of
carolers practicing their rounds. Contemporary Christian missionaries, we wonder,
or the long shadow of the British Raj? [Aaron] |
| december
16, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
In the drum corps of devices that swing, such as washer-and-dryer combo units,
trains, belt-powered rice grinders, etc., the mechanical press must certainly
hold a proud position. This one (one of several hand-fed printing presses I recorded
on our honeymoon trip) plays most every day along the river in Jingdezhen, central
China, famous for its porcelain. [Aaron] |
| december
9, 2002 | 1.3
MB | 'Recorded
about noon on December 3, 2002, on a city lake in St. Paul, MN. For a short period
most years there is a time of continuous Ice Booming. The weather must be just
right and the ice must be the right thickness for continuous booming. Recorded
about 75 yards from shore after one of the first 0 degree F nights with about
three inches of ice. The sound is created as the ice expands and builds during
these early cold winter days. If there is no snow cover as in this recording the
sound carries for great distances... No filtering or amplification done of any
kind; recorded with a single Sennheiser ME-62 located 6 inches off the ice and
a Sony MZ-R90 Minidisc recorder.' This vacation was contributed by nature recordist
and soundscape designer Rich Peet. |
| december
2, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
Foghorns, ship horns, and the crash of waves on China Beach, in San Francisco's
Presidio. This vacation was contributed by visual artist and sometime collaborator
Dawn Neal, whose affinity for
the sea extends to her recent painting series, Deep
Creatures. | | november
25, 2002 | 1.3
MB | 'A
recording I made about a month ago, at a place called The Basin, an hour up the
coast from Sydney. It is only reachable by a short ferry ride across the Pittwater
from Palm Beach. My partner and I had spent the day there, exploring and relaxing,
and this was recorded as we waited for the ferry to come past and collect us for
our return journey.' This vacation was contributed by Ben
Dixon, who makes amazing jewelry. | | november
18, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
Another offering from the enigmatic Hervé
Birolini: 'Of return of Venice here is what one can hear of the edge of a
pontoon. Three gondolas and or Japanese tourists are facinated by an Italian singer...'
As tommorow is my birthday, this is my present. | | november
11, 2002 | 1.3
MB | 'October
8, 2002: I was at the Waterfront in Capetown, South Africa, watching a group of
about 35 kids playing. It looked to be an organized school group of kids in ages
from about 4 - 6 yrs old, they were very cute. I had my DAT recording rolling
with my binaurals getting the sounds of them playing and enjoying themselves on
their outing. Then all of sudden a small group of about 5 of them came up to me
and started reciting the 23rd Psalm. Then slowly the rest of the kids encircled
me all saying the prayer. I couldn't believe it - this was one of the highlights
of my trip. I saw them do the same thing to some people a little later... I guess
they were trying to raise a little money for their school...' This vacation was
contributed by Marc Levisohn
of HUM Music and Sound Design. |
| november
4, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
'Recorded one Saturday morning (19 October 2002, 11:00 AM) while I was walking
through the market near my home in Reading, UK, Ion a Sony MZ-R30 using a Soundman
OKM-II binaural headset... This kind of traditional market is fast disappearing
in parts of the UK, being replaced with "shops outdoors". I found the
woman calling "Come on help yourself where you like - you can't do that everywhere"
intriguing. She was referring to customers selecting their own fruit and vegetables
from the stall, rather than being given what they were given. This market is a
mix of more traditional produce stalls (fruit, vegetables, herbs, meat, etc) and
guys selling mobile phones, software, CDs and so on. ' So wrote contributor Chris
Owens. | | october
28, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
An
impromptu evening concert, audience of two, on the causeway spanning the moat
of Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Dusk falls: tourists, monks, and hawkers all head home
for the day... [Aaron] |
| october
21, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
A peach tree moving in the wind, as recorded with two contact
microphones by Albert Casais/OMNID,
in Bayonne, New Jersey. An excerpt from a twenty-minute recording, made in Albert's
yard: the world as an insect or squirrel might hear it, settling in against the
long winter. | | october
14, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
Still
life with cow and vendor, in a residential courtyard in the narrow streets of
the old city in Benares (Varanasi), India. A twisty turn to the left and to the
right, the alleys are lined with shops selling tea and devotional paraphenalia
to the river of pilgrims (and tea and biscuits to the river of backpacking tourists). [Aaron] |
| october
7, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
'An unbearably hot July day in Arles, South of France. Not a centimetre of shade,
anywhere. While my friend Gao haggles over the price of an interview with their
parents, two gypsy children splash around in a huge inflatable swimming pool,
trying to see who can create the most havoc.' This one-minute vacation was contributed
by Peter Snowdon. | | september
30, 2002 | 1.3
MB | 'While
listening for seabirds leaving their mountain nest sites, I came upon a small
flock of 6 Nene in their (apparent) morning wake-up ritual, about 04:30: cooing,
moaning, preening, stretching legs and wings, finally launching into flight in
a chorus of gentle honking. ' This vacation was contributed by Hawaii resident
David Kuhn. |
| september
23, 2002 | 1.9
MB |
'Recordist: Thom Blum. December 31st, 1999; Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. 5:30pm local
time, 12pm GMT. Fortune teller at the Millennium Festival, Rambagh Palace...'
This one-minute vacation was indeed contributed by Thom
Blum. | | september
16, 2002 | 1.3
MB | 'A
bowling alley on Long Island, NY. It was a league night and all 40 lanes were
full with bowlers. I am sitting in the back of this rectangular building at the
bar, all of the action behind me; nobody knew I was recording. This was recorded
with the Sound Pro's in-ear binaural microphones and their low noise mike pre
amp hooked to the line input of a Nomad Jukebox 3 as a 44.1kHz WAV. ' This vacation
was submitted by Alexander Reben. |
| september
9, 2002 | 800
KB |
An enigmatic email arrived while I was gone last week, accompanying this recording:
'It is about dancers AWASSA (From Sikin Sani). They dance with necklace of seeds
in ankles what produces a very particular sound.' Apparently this is an excerpt
from a work titled 'Guyana's, actors of the green', recorded in Surinam. This
wonderful (if short) vacation was submitted by Hervé
Birolini. | | september
2, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
An
elderly blind woman carrying a portable karaoke machine and singing for alms in
the late afternoon sunshie, outside the cavernous, thronged Chiang Mai day market
in northern Thailand. [Aaron] |
| august
26, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
An unexpected bit of comfortable old technology breaks the stereotype of fast-forward
Japan: a mechanical flight information board at Hanada airport ticks rhythmically
over as planes arrive, board and depart. [Aaron] |
| august
19, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
A
dream product of mine: a megaphone with built-sampler. I should have bought a
crate of these in China, where this recording was made. Shopkeepers would record
daily specials into them and flood market streets with phasing sales pitches.
Delicious. [Aaron] |
| august
12, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
There is no place I would rather be than sitting in the doorway of a second-class
sleeper car on an Indian train at sunset. This recording, made from my upper-tier
bunk, captures conversation in the car and the approach of both a chai-wallah
and a harmonium-weilding alms-collector. [Aaron] |
| august
5, 2002 | 1.4
MB | '4th
of July fireworks near Cle Elum, Washington, USA. Fireworks were set off in a
flat area with some surrounding hillsides. There is a low frequency hum right
at the beginning in one channel: an insect fly-by?' Recorded July 4, 2002 in Cle
Elum, WA, USA by Toby Paddock. |
| july
29, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
'During the hour of 12am, the end of a pier. Ships, anglers.' This one-minute
vacation was recorded in San Diego, California by sound artist civyiu
kkliu, who has this
to say about field recordings. | | july
22, 2002 | 1.4
MB | 'It
was not a hot day for White Sands, maybe only 95 degrees. Still, I suffered a
mild heat exhaustion obtaining this recording. The intensely white sand reflects
infrared radiation from the sun up into your body, so you are recieving several
times the amount of solar energy you ordinarily would. It was a low cottonwood,
nestled in the crook of two dunes. I hadn't expected to find vegetation in the
dunes, but there is actually quite a bit. Below the first few inches, the sand
is cool and moist - the heat mostly reflects away.' Recorded Aug. 1, 2001 in White
Sands, NM, USA by Jeremiah Moore.
You can hear him talk about his work here. |
| july
15, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
Stopping to make stickers
at the foot of Mt. Fuji — or at least, the end of the roadhead half way up
it. We climbed it one July evening starting at midnight: a surreal experience
to say the least. Twelve hours of walking, climbing, and collapsing in the company
of thousands of gortex-clad fellow pilgrims. But first, I made stickers with this
'puripuri' machine. A friend tells me 'puri puri' is derived as follows: 'print
club' is a name for popular sticker-making machines — 'print' is rendered
'purintu' in Japanese English, then truncated to 'puri' and doubled to be cute(!). [Aaron] |
| july
8, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
Everywhere
I've been in the Himalayan hills of Nepal, I've encountered mani walls dividing
the trail — walls built entirely from stone slabs carved with Buddhist mantras
(the older the stone, the denser the carving). Some of the walls enclose prayer
wheels to spin as you pass — spinning them spreads blessings on the wind
from the mantras stuffed inside. Hopefully listening to this track has the same
effect. [Aaron] |
| july
1, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
A hand-cranked record player in a cluttered antique store in old Shanghai. We
stopped to pet the cat, stayed... to pet the cat. [Aaron] |
| june
24, 2002 | 1.4
MB | 'Gamelan
performance, Ubud palace ensemble- A light, misting rain falls during a performance
of the Legong, shorting out the small amp used by an elderly member of the gamelan
ensemble. Tortured squelches narrate the actions of the dancers...' This one-minute
vacation was contributed by Kaveh Soofi,
who also designed the look and feel of this website, including the transparent
flag logo. | | june
17, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
Phantasmagoric sunset near the main entrance to Angkor Wat, justly famous centerpiece
of an abandoned city in the jungles of Cambodia. Cicadas and children done with
a day of guiding and hawking; an inevitable motorcycle on the ring road; perhaps
the echoes of a traditional ensemble rehearsing nearby, and the fruit bats wheeling
in the gloaming... [Aaron] |
| june
10, 2002 | 1.4
MB | 'The
best time is late night — after everyone's gone home. Those left are on a
mix of corn whiskey and ditch weed, forgetting the names of songs, the chord progressions,
which lyrics go where. The fuck-ups are funny and the music loses all its inhibitions.
This was recorded at about one in the morning, on a rainy Mississippi summer night.'
This one-minute vacation was contributed by Benjamin
Adair, It's an excerpt from The
Picnic, a show he produced for the NPR show The
Savvy Traveler. | | june
3, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
'January 3, 2002, around 4 p.m., on the underground platform in the MARTA
Five Points train station in Atlanta, GA, USA. It had snowed about 4 to 6 inches
that morning, an unusual event in Atlanta. Whenever there's even a rumor of snow
in Atlanta, the milk, bread, and cereal disappear from store shelves within hours.
This exasperated lady had experienced the panic first hand the night before...'
This one-minute vacation was contributed by Tom
Campbell, | | may
27, 2002 | 1.3
MB | Memorial
Day in the USA: the Blue Angels bring
their trademark aggro-industrial sound art to San Francisco skies. This one-minute
vacation was contributed by jhno,
who recorded it from our mutual roof a few years ago. |
| may
20, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
'Thaipusam, a day of consecration to the Hindu deity, Lord Murugan. A feature
of the festival is the carrying of a kavadi, a frame decorated with colored papers,
tinsels, fresh flowers, and fruits as a form of penance. In Kuala Lumpur, Hindus
carrying the kavadi up the 272 steps to the entrance of the great cave at Batu
in Selangor and deposited at the feet of the deity.' This one-minute vacation
was contributed by Jarra Schirris.
(Jarra's full description can be read here.)
| | may
13, 2002 | 1.4
MB | 'A
walk through the Medina in Fez, Morocco with a pair of binaural microphones. This
was recorded in 1998.' This one-minute vacation was contributed by Gregory
Cowley. | | may
6, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
Midnight in Yak Karka, Nepal, at 16,000': yaks doze warily in bright moonlight
in their rocky pasture; a newborn icy stream rushes down the valley below. Please
listen to this one at low volume, it's a quiet moment. For my wife in celebration
of our tenth anniversary together, and in memory of a snowy morning climb to the
top of Yak Ri the following morning. [Aaron] |
| april
29, 2002 | 1.5
MB | 'The
afternoon of April 18, 2002 was peppered with numerous, very brief, hail storms.
This one was recorded in Earl's cattle shed, with steel fence, watering pond and
spring peepers about one mile north of LaFarge, Wisconsin.' This one-minute vacation
was contributed by Rob Danielson. |
| april
22, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
A
bit of music on a Vietnamese train's PA, to entertain and settle the passengers
before departure. An excerpt from the recording released here as S3. [Aaron] |
| april
15, 2002 | 1.4
MB | Tax
day in the US, so a reminder of state power: a tank rolling the streets of Siem
Reip, Cambodia, staging ground for tourists exploring the nearby ruins of Angkor.
A coup, we wondered? No — a prop requisitioned for the filming of the Tomb
Raider movie. Simulated violence in a country so betrayed by it. |
| april
8, 2002 | 1.4
MB | Elaborate
or simple, vast or private, the Hindu ceremonies known as pujas are ubiquitous
in Varanasi, the
holy city of Shiva sprawled on one bank of the Ganges in northern India. The river
is lined with crumbling steps, ghats, steeped in history and myth: the footprings
are Brahma, the place Shiva appeared as infinite lingam of light. This recording
captures the ringing of suspended bells for an evening ceremony at always-chaotic
Dashashwamedh
Ghat. |
| april
1, 2002 | 1.4
MB | Kalaloch
Beach: Early evening high tide at Kalaloch Beach on the Western coast of Washington
state. I held my microphones inches above the crepitating foam and whooshing waves.
Recorded February 20, 2002 by Christopher
DeLaurenti. | | march
25, 2002 | 1.4
MB | Five
times a day the cities of Bangladesh swell with the echoing chorus of muezzins
calling the faithful to prayer. From every direction come the calls, one after
the other: different mosques announce the call at slightly different times according
to their form of Islam or the variations of their clocks. Some call with recordings,
some (the richer?) with their own muezzin, each of whom has a distinct style.
In this recording made at dusk from a rooftop, you can also hear the bells of
innumerable bicycle rickshaws in the narrow streets below. [Aaron] |
| march
18, 2002 | 1.4
MB | Thriving
street markets surround the Jokhang in old Lhasa, Tibet. By day, tables are covered
with trinkets for tourists. At dusk as the busses retreat the cheap thankas and
fake turquoise jewelry are packed away. Out come the running shoes, sweat pants
and T-shirts favored by locals and pilgrims. Certain street corners are given
over to tables of second- and third- generation cassettes — and the boomboxes
that advertise the latest arrivals. [Aaron] |
| march
11, 2002 | 1.4
MB | 'Broadway
and Fifth Avenue in Nashville, TN, 11:00 p.m. Un-quiet america: all down the block,
music from open-door honky tonk bars spills out to the street. Inside, more spilling.
No cover charge, two for one pitchers. Recorded March 7, 2002.' This one-minute
vacation was contributed by
Dave McGuire. You
can hear him talk about his work here. |
| march
4, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
Bell-laden
water buffalo enjoy a late afternoon bath in Muong Houn, a small town eight hours
by bumpy road from anywhere in northern Laos. The buffalo were scrubbed by their
tsk-tsking caretakers not far from a soccer field; in this recording you can hear
a game unwinding in the background, and the cautious approach of curious children
who soon surrounded us. [Aaron] |
| february
25, 2002 | 1.4
MB |
Dawn from a rooftop near the
soaring towers of the Sri Meenakshi temple that dominate Madurai in southern India.
Morning pujas echoes from P.A. speakers around the temple complex, mixing with
chittering swifts and early traffic on the streets below. The towers are covered
with detailed, riotously-colored three-dimensional sculptures of the gods and
heroes of Hinduism. [Aaron] |
| february
18, 2002 | 1.4
MB | Morning
chant at the Diki Kalsang gompa in Bagarchap, half way up the Manang valley in
central Nepal. In the mid-90's the town was devestated by a landslide, something
not apparent at first glance today. No precarious overhangs or steep slopes crowd
the town; but a river of house-sized boulders cleanly removed its middle one day.
I sat in on morning chant to record this gompa, then returned a half hour later
to record again as I'd accidentally placed my recorder in 'mono' recording —
cause for general amusement. [Aaron] |
| february
11, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
'This moment was recorded
on May 24, 1998, around 9am, at Pointe du Talut, Kerroch, Ploemeur (56), France.
As I sat on a rock a few meters from the Atlantic ocean a plane appeared, a boat
passed, and the shells 'sang' (the small stereo cracklings are the shells)...
Originally recorded on a cheap cassette recorder with cheap mics too — apologies
for the sound quality.' This one-minute vacation was contributed by Cédric Peyronnet
of toy.bizarre. |
| february
4, 2002 | 1.9
MB | The
Sunderbans mangrove forests stretch across the uninhabited coastline of southeast
Bangladesh. We chartered a boat to the mouth of the Ganges in search of Bengal
tigers that roam the narrow canals and twisted roots. Moored one night near the
sea, listening to the moaning of tigers on either bank, the tide brought in phosphorescence
— dancing constellations of living light, aquatic fireflies. When the waves
rolled by, their motion stirred the phosphorescence to glow, and the surface boiled
with fish feeding on them. For Zöe who just had her 30th. [Aaron] |
| january
28, 2002 | 1.3
MB |
A mysterious bit of ambiance
from an afternoon pitstop along a highway in Burma. I couldn't quite figure the
recording you can hear playing out — it was distorting like a tape, but skips
like an LP. Given the amount of voracious recycling in (import starved) Burma,
I decided it was a tape of a skipping LP. [Aaron] | | january
21, 2002 | 2.2
MB | The
backwaters of Kerala, southern India. My wife and I chartered a houseboat and
drifted for a few days along quiet canals; this MP3 captures a moment of evening
rain from our bamboo roofed bedroom: rain on the river, crickets softly singing,
the voices of our small crew. In the first few seconds, a frog plashes past. This
moment was isolated for 60" somewhere, a project
by Ven Voisey of www.throat.org. [Aaron] | |
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