artist: ISOBEL CLOUTER & ROB MULLENDER
title: Myths Of Origin - Sonic Ephemera From East Asia
catalog number: and/32
release year: 2008
format: CD+
status: available
title: Myths Of Origin - Sonic Ephemera From East Asia
catalog number: and/32
release year: 2008
format: CD+
status: available
Track listing:
1. Sawara Matsuri / Singing Sand / Suikinkutsu
2. KotohiKi-hama - Kotoga-hama Beaches
3. Chion-in Temple / Nightingale Floor / Saiho-ji Temple
4. Dune Ascent / Descent
5. Aosigetunoer Descent
6. Baoritaolegainuoer Natural Booming
7. Baoritaolegainuoer Descent
8. Dune 3 Descent
9. Tibetan Prayer Wheels, Xiahe
At long last, after a culmination of delays amounting to 3 years,
and/OAR is extremely happy to finally present a full length release
featuring "singing sand" and "booming sand" recorded in Japan and
Mongolia by British sound artists Isobel Clouter and Rob Mullender.
"Singing sand", "booming sand", "whistling sand" or "barking sand" is
sand that produces sounds of either high or low frequency under
pressure. The sound emission is usually triggered by wind passing over
dunes or by walking on the sand.
Also featured are field recordings of a traditional Japanese Sawara
Matsuri festival, a Suikinkutsu (underground water zither), Uguisubari (or
Nightengale floor), Chion-in temple and Saiho-ji temple .
The recordings came about as a result of a project instigated in late
1999, which bears witness to a long held fascination with how the
environment generates and shapes culture, memory and myth. There
was no desire to conduct any scientific or anthropological field work, but
to collect a set of recordings which would serve to illustrate how precious
the sonic environment can be, and to act as founding materials for a
soundscape collection at the British Library Sound Archive.
The audio CD also features a PDF of extra photos pertaining to the
recordings that can be accessed on a computer, and comes packaged
in a four color digipak and a 12 page booklet.
This CD is dedicated to the memory of Professor Shigeo Miwa, whose
warm generosity and enthusiasm was invaluable to the success of this
recording project, and whose work is mentioned in an interesting article
about booming sand and the environment, a PDF of which can be found
here .
Read the and/OAR interview of Isobel Clouter and Rob Mullender.
1. Sawara Matsuri / Singing Sand / Suikinkutsu
2. KotohiKi-hama - Kotoga-hama Beaches
3. Chion-in Temple / Nightingale Floor / Saiho-ji Temple
4. Dune Ascent / Descent
5. Aosigetunoer Descent
6. Baoritaolegainuoer Natural Booming
7. Baoritaolegainuoer Descent
8. Dune 3 Descent
9. Tibetan Prayer Wheels, Xiahe
At long last, after a culmination of delays amounting to 3 years,
and/OAR is extremely happy to finally present a full length release
featuring "singing sand" and "booming sand" recorded in Japan and
Mongolia by British sound artists Isobel Clouter and Rob Mullender.
"Singing sand", "booming sand", "whistling sand" or "barking sand" is
sand that produces sounds of either high or low frequency under
pressure. The sound emission is usually triggered by wind passing over
dunes or by walking on the sand.
Also featured are field recordings of a traditional Japanese Sawara
Matsuri festival, a Suikinkutsu (underground water zither), Uguisubari (or
Nightengale floor), Chion-in temple and Saiho-ji temple .
The recordings came about as a result of a project instigated in late
1999, which bears witness to a long held fascination with how the
environment generates and shapes culture, memory and myth. There
was no desire to conduct any scientific or anthropological field work, but
to collect a set of recordings which would serve to illustrate how precious
the sonic environment can be, and to act as founding materials for a
soundscape collection at the British Library Sound Archive.
The audio CD also features a PDF of extra photos pertaining to the
recordings that can be accessed on a computer, and comes packaged
in a four color digipak and a 12 page booklet.
This CD is dedicated to the memory of Professor Shigeo Miwa, whose
warm generosity and enthusiasm was invaluable to the success of this
recording project, and whose work is mentioned in an interesting article
about booming sand and the environment, a PDF of which can be found
here .
Read the and/OAR interview of Isobel Clouter and Rob Mullender.
Tibetan Prayer wheels, Xiahe.
This brief (and silent) video clip pertains to track 9
This brief (and silent) video clip pertains to track 9
AQUARIUS RECORDS (JANUARY 2009)
File this one right next to your Alan Lamb discs of singing telegraph
wires and the Broken Hearted Dragonflies album on Sublime
Frequencies, as the British sound art duo of Isobel Clouter and Rob
Mullender have presented us with some seemingly implausible
recordings of 'booming sand'. These are monotone frequencies
generated by an avalanche of a sand dune under just the right
environmental conditions. Such sounds have been reported in numerous
times and places with Marco Polo recounting them on his excursions to
China, and with Charles Darwin finding similar sounds in the deserts of
Chile! At the onset of one of their recordings, we hear Isobel huffing and
puffing up to the top of a massive sand dune, before she puts her ears to
the ground (quite literally) in order to locate the origin of the rumbling
drone. Such a bracketing episode of human presence is very useful to
frame the stillness of the desert even as the booming sound resonates
through the landscape. It also helps to distance these natural sounds
from their manmade doomscape kin of a lowslung bass slumped in
subharmonic stupor against a rumbling amplifier. Aside from these
impressively heavy recordings, Clouter and Mullender offer some
additional recordings from elsewhere in Asia: hissing textures from
windswept sand comingling with cicadas buzzing in the summer sun,
and a Tibetan prayer wheel revolving through its wooden cycles of
creaks and moans. These are good extracts of pure phonography, but
pale next to the thoroughly impressive booming sand phenomenon.
File this one right next to your Alan Lamb discs of singing telegraph
wires and the Broken Hearted Dragonflies album on Sublime
Frequencies, as the British sound art duo of Isobel Clouter and Rob
Mullender have presented us with some seemingly implausible
recordings of 'booming sand'. These are monotone frequencies
generated by an avalanche of a sand dune under just the right
environmental conditions. Such sounds have been reported in numerous
times and places with Marco Polo recounting them on his excursions to
China, and with Charles Darwin finding similar sounds in the deserts of
Chile! At the onset of one of their recordings, we hear Isobel huffing and
puffing up to the top of a massive sand dune, before she puts her ears to
the ground (quite literally) in order to locate the origin of the rumbling
drone. Such a bracketing episode of human presence is very useful to
frame the stillness of the desert even as the booming sound resonates
through the landscape. It also helps to distance these natural sounds
from their manmade doomscape kin of a lowslung bass slumped in
subharmonic stupor against a rumbling amplifier. Aside from these
impressively heavy recordings, Clouter and Mullender offer some
additional recordings from elsewhere in Asia: hissing textures from
windswept sand comingling with cicadas buzzing in the summer sun,
and a Tibetan prayer wheel revolving through its wooden cycles of
creaks and moans. These are good extracts of pure phonography, but
pale next to the thoroughly impressive booming sand phenomenon.
WIRE (MAY 2009)
Sand dunes can be said to 'sing' when, disturbed into movement by a
combination of a prevailing wind and certain levels of humidity, they
emit sound frequencies. There are only a small number of places in the
world where the acoustic phenomenon of singing sand has been
documented. Myths Of Origin results from a trip by UK field recordists
Rob Mullender and Isobel Clouter to regions of China and Japan to try to
capture this elusive occurrence.
They managed to record a natural incidence of it in an inner Mongolian
desert, which is no small achievement, along with a handful of other
artificially induced incidences (dunes can apparently be agitated into
singing by sliding down them). The sound itself is wonderfully rich, a
dense humming frequency, shuddering with multiple levels of sonic
detail.
The recordings of the singing sand are interspersed with excerpts of
rather less elemental experiences, in monasteries, temples and gardens.
Those recorded in China somewhat tenuously attempt to trace the
influence of booming sand on the vocal traditions of the areas in
question, and the tracks recorded in Japan are "akin to sonic postcards",
as Clouter and Mullender themselves admit.
These tracks certainly divert attention towards the recordings of booming
sand, but there's a clear disconnect between the two, which is
symptomatic of the fact that Myths Of Origin wants to be a soundscape
documentary and an anthropological thesis, but can't manage both. But
this flaw isn't fatal however, and is outweighed by the album's value as a
document of a rarely encountered natural phenomenon. (Nick Cain)
Sand dunes can be said to 'sing' when, disturbed into movement by a
combination of a prevailing wind and certain levels of humidity, they
emit sound frequencies. There are only a small number of places in the
world where the acoustic phenomenon of singing sand has been
documented. Myths Of Origin results from a trip by UK field recordists
Rob Mullender and Isobel Clouter to regions of China and Japan to try to
capture this elusive occurrence.
They managed to record a natural incidence of it in an inner Mongolian
desert, which is no small achievement, along with a handful of other
artificially induced incidences (dunes can apparently be agitated into
singing by sliding down them). The sound itself is wonderfully rich, a
dense humming frequency, shuddering with multiple levels of sonic
detail.
The recordings of the singing sand are interspersed with excerpts of
rather less elemental experiences, in monasteries, temples and gardens.
Those recorded in China somewhat tenuously attempt to trace the
influence of booming sand on the vocal traditions of the areas in
question, and the tracks recorded in Japan are "akin to sonic postcards",
as Clouter and Mullender themselves admit.
These tracks certainly divert attention towards the recordings of booming
sand, but there's a clear disconnect between the two, which is
symptomatic of the fact that Myths Of Origin wants to be a soundscape
documentary and an anthropological thesis, but can't manage both. But
this flaw isn't fatal however, and is outweighed by the album's value as a
document of a rarely encountered natural phenomenon. (Nick Cain)
THE WATCHFUL EAR (FEBRUARY 2009)
I picked up this disc because of its inclusion of several recordings of
shifting sands, the incredible aural phenomena whereby large banks of
sand that have been set moving by gravity create a deep humming
noise. These sounds have been very rarely captured over the years, and
the recordings here are no doubt not even close to a good replacement
for hearing them live as here they are divorced from the magnificent
natural power that creates them. Still the recordings are good and are
just one part of this album which works as an audio diary for several trips
to China, Japan and Mongolia. So we don’t just hear the singing sands,
but the wash of nearby tides, the buzzing of passing flies and the sound
of the two recordists as they make their way to assorted vantage points. At
the end of one track, after the booming sounds of the sands have passed
the pair are left discussing the event in somewhat awestruck terminology,
a charming moment. Like other and/OAR releases have done in the past,
the disc also contains PDF files of photos taken to go with the music
which is a thoughtful additional touch. I found this release to be an
interesting and pleasant listen, answering my curiosity about how these
sands might sound [they really sound nothing like you might expect by
the way]. (Richard Pinnell)
I picked up this disc because of its inclusion of several recordings of
shifting sands, the incredible aural phenomena whereby large banks of
sand that have been set moving by gravity create a deep humming
noise. These sounds have been very rarely captured over the years, and
the recordings here are no doubt not even close to a good replacement
for hearing them live as here they are divorced from the magnificent
natural power that creates them. Still the recordings are good and are
just one part of this album which works as an audio diary for several trips
to China, Japan and Mongolia. So we don’t just hear the singing sands,
but the wash of nearby tides, the buzzing of passing flies and the sound
of the two recordists as they make their way to assorted vantage points. At
the end of one track, after the booming sounds of the sands have passed
the pair are left discussing the event in somewhat awestruck terminology,
a charming moment. Like other and/OAR releases have done in the past,
the disc also contains PDF files of photos taken to go with the music
which is a thoughtful additional touch. I found this release to be an
interesting and pleasant listen, answering my curiosity about how these
sands might sound [they really sound nothing like you might expect by
the way]. (Richard Pinnell)
JUST OUTSIDE (FEBRUARY 2009)
When Dale from and/OAR wrote that he'd like to send me a couple of
things, I asked about this disc since I'd been intrigued by Richard's
mention of it recently. I'm pretty sure I'd never actually heard "singing
sands" and maybe had only vaguely known about their existence period.
Dale kindly obliged. The disc is a set of field recordings, the first three
from Japan, the last six from China. The non-sand dune recordings don't
do so much for me --I'm not sure to what degree they've been
restructured but, aside from the attractiveness of the sounds themselves
(which is fine) I don't pick up that extra dimension I've found in Tsunoda
or, more recently, French. The dune experiences, however, are pretty
amazing, even as you understand you're getting probably a hundredth
the effect you would were you out in the field. Essentially, cascading
waves of sand on these large dunes can set into action enormous
resonance effects within the dune itself, sounding like the Earth is deeply
thrumming. Even as is, you might not want to play this with your speakers
too close to the shelf edge. Fascinating phenomenon, even if on disc it
reads perhaps more as a cool science experiment. (Brian Olewnick)
When Dale from and/OAR wrote that he'd like to send me a couple of
things, I asked about this disc since I'd been intrigued by Richard's
mention of it recently. I'm pretty sure I'd never actually heard "singing
sands" and maybe had only vaguely known about their existence period.
Dale kindly obliged. The disc is a set of field recordings, the first three
from Japan, the last six from China. The non-sand dune recordings don't
do so much for me --I'm not sure to what degree they've been
restructured but, aside from the attractiveness of the sounds themselves
(which is fine) I don't pick up that extra dimension I've found in Tsunoda
or, more recently, French. The dune experiences, however, are pretty
amazing, even as you understand you're getting probably a hundredth
the effect you would were you out in the field. Essentially, cascading
waves of sand on these large dunes can set into action enormous
resonance effects within the dune itself, sounding like the Earth is deeply
thrumming. Even as is, you might not want to play this with your speakers
too close to the shelf edge. Fascinating phenomenon, even if on disc it
reads perhaps more as a cool science experiment. (Brian Olewnick)
BRAIN DEAD ETERNITY (SEPTEMBER 2009)
Environment-based editions are a dime a dozen these days, trying to
discover a special item a pretty hard assignment. Fear not, though: just
walk towards Dale Lloyd’s ever-impressive and/OAR to come across a
catalogue as diverse as the various facets of human activity, not to
mention the level of touching intensity shown by some of this label’s
records over the years. This splendid work by Clouter and Mullender was
originally conceived in 1999, year in which they decided to gather
sounds that “would serve to illustrate how precious the sonic environment
can be, and to act as founding materials for a soundscape collection at
the British Library Sound Archive”. All the pieces of this CD borrow from
original recordings made in 2001 in regions of Japan and China.
The sources of these impressions are traces of urban life and organic
reverberations perceived in different settings including temples, private
gardens, deserts and beaches. The team-mates appear to be principally
interested – as confirmed by the extremely detailed notes of the
accompanying booklet – in the phenomenon of booming sands, which
they frantically tried to capture in several occasions, mainly during a
stay in the Mongolian desert. Indeed the sounds recorded amidst the
dunes characterize the vast majority of the second half of the program -
the one where a distinctly droning nature, which renders the acoustic
landscape ominous at times, seems to prevail as opposed to the more
variegated expressions – sea waves, children at play amidst talking folks,
metallic thuds, kitchen-related noises, squeaking objects, traffic and
other assorted symptoms – that are mostly found in the Japanese files,
but also in the conclusive episode taped at the Labrang monastery in
Xiahe, largely characterized by the creaking spinning of Tibetan prayer
wheels.
Leaving details aside, what actually strikes is the way in which Clouter
and Mullender managed to seize and subsequently organize the
inherent musicality of these flashes. It’s right here that contenders get
separated from pretenders in this particular area. One thing is sticking a
microphone outside a window and finding an excuse to release whatever
happens in those sixty minutes; another is embarking in a project of such
extent and significance, a trip that is not strictly geographic but touches
the essential aspects of the reactions that humans have when confronted
with aural occurrences that do not belong to a daily familiarity. Those
responses are fundamental in determining who we really are, as the
behaviour in front of sound is the perfect gauge for a soul’s depth and, at
large, the real value of hypothetically “sentient” entities. The
amazement of the two partners, clearly expressed at the end of “Dune 3”
after having heard marvellous murmurs, is an indicator in that sense. It
shows the degree of love for existence that is necessary to individuate a
quintessence, something that was achieved completely in this case,
unpronounced mysticism and earthly manifestations blending in
physical radiance. (Massimo Ricci)
Environment-based editions are a dime a dozen these days, trying to
discover a special item a pretty hard assignment. Fear not, though: just
walk towards Dale Lloyd’s ever-impressive and/OAR to come across a
catalogue as diverse as the various facets of human activity, not to
mention the level of touching intensity shown by some of this label’s
records over the years. This splendid work by Clouter and Mullender was
originally conceived in 1999, year in which they decided to gather
sounds that “would serve to illustrate how precious the sonic environment
can be, and to act as founding materials for a soundscape collection at
the British Library Sound Archive”. All the pieces of this CD borrow from
original recordings made in 2001 in regions of Japan and China.
The sources of these impressions are traces of urban life and organic
reverberations perceived in different settings including temples, private
gardens, deserts and beaches. The team-mates appear to be principally
interested – as confirmed by the extremely detailed notes of the
accompanying booklet – in the phenomenon of booming sands, which
they frantically tried to capture in several occasions, mainly during a
stay in the Mongolian desert. Indeed the sounds recorded amidst the
dunes characterize the vast majority of the second half of the program -
the one where a distinctly droning nature, which renders the acoustic
landscape ominous at times, seems to prevail as opposed to the more
variegated expressions – sea waves, children at play amidst talking folks,
metallic thuds, kitchen-related noises, squeaking objects, traffic and
other assorted symptoms – that are mostly found in the Japanese files,
but also in the conclusive episode taped at the Labrang monastery in
Xiahe, largely characterized by the creaking spinning of Tibetan prayer
wheels.
Leaving details aside, what actually strikes is the way in which Clouter
and Mullender managed to seize and subsequently organize the
inherent musicality of these flashes. It’s right here that contenders get
separated from pretenders in this particular area. One thing is sticking a
microphone outside a window and finding an excuse to release whatever
happens in those sixty minutes; another is embarking in a project of such
extent and significance, a trip that is not strictly geographic but touches
the essential aspects of the reactions that humans have when confronted
with aural occurrences that do not belong to a daily familiarity. Those
responses are fundamental in determining who we really are, as the
behaviour in front of sound is the perfect gauge for a soul’s depth and, at
large, the real value of hypothetically “sentient” entities. The
amazement of the two partners, clearly expressed at the end of “Dune 3”
after having heard marvellous murmurs, is an indicator in that sense. It
shows the degree of love for existence that is necessary to individuate a
quintessence, something that was achieved completely in this case,
unpronounced mysticism and earthly manifestations blending in
physical radiance. (Massimo Ricci)
