Violin and Chat

Relaxing at the Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter... again...

Crunching Snow Underfoot

As have a lot of places in the UK, Exeter experienced a surprising amount of snow in January. I went out for a walk after work one evening and recorded the sound of the snow crunching underfoot.

Exeter Quayside

Recordings of flowing water around Trews Weir along from the Exeter Quayside.

Einzelganger - Chion-In

Einzelganger is Thijs Geritz, a guy I met on Soundloud.com. He composes very interesting sound art and field recording-based music - definitely worth a thorough listen.

Recent I was very honoured to have one of my recordings used as the basis of one of Einzelganger's pieces.

I like it a lot and wish to share it with you.


Chion-in  by  Einzelganger

Overheard from the football ground.

We live close to Exeter City's football ground - St James' Park.

We can often hear what's going on from our back garden.

Pub Ambience

We've got a new local pub, and it's a great one. It's called 'The Rusty Bike', and it does great food and beer. It's also a good pub for a Sunday pint and read of the paper - the very activity I was partaking in when making this recording!

Trafalgar Square

I was up in London in August. It was a great sunny day, and there was plenty going on in Trafalgar Square.

M5 motorway through Exeter

Walking over the M5 flyover on Tithebarn Lane Exeter, Devon. A binaural field recording taken on 4th August 2009.

This is on my lunch break walking route - most of the route is more picturesque than the motorway flyover though!

Exeter Respect 2009 : Pooja Angra

To quote from her official Youtube page, Dr Pooja Angra is a Hindustani classical singer with a doctorate in Indian Classical music from Delhi University. She is based in the U.K. She got her initial training from Prof Alankar Singh & Ruby Banerjee and later from Dr A.S Paital & Prof Geeta Paintal of Agra and Indore Gharna. She is an approved All India Radio & T.V artist since 1991 & 1998 respectively. In addition to concerts and live shows of Indian classical music in the U.K, she gives workshops and presentations at a number of institiutes. She works on a number of assignments for Southampton music services and Art Asia. She regularly sings for the BBC Asian Network.

It was a real pleasure to experience her performance at Exeter Respect Festival 2009. Here are some recordings I made during her set. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.





Recorded on 11 July 2009

Exeter Respect 2009: Chartwell Dutiro

Chartwell Dutiro is a mbira player from Zimbabwe. It was great pleasure to experience his music and I was impressed by the musicianship of both him and he accompanying players.






Recorded on 11 July 2009

Exeter Respect 2009

Earlier on during the Respect Festival I just had a walk around the site seeing what was going on. I made a few recordings while at it. One of the things I picked up on was the band previously covered - Ainote-san, travelling in 'locomotive'-fashion while making crazy noises with plastic bottles, cowbells and a melodica. All good.





Recorded on 11 July 2009

Exeter Respect 2009 : Ainote-san 2

At the end of the set AInote-san concluded with an improvised piece under the Whaletone Opera banner that was much more avant-garde and eccentric - as on might expect from improvised music! Members of the collective disbanded into the audience where they basically tried to 'freak out the squares'. They did, and it was good. All in good humour!









Recorded on 11 July 2009

Exeter Respect 2009 : Ainote-san

The Exeter Respect Festival takes place each year, and as you might be able to spot, I've taken my recording equipment along to this event in the past. Previously the festival had been held at the Phoenix Arts Centre but this was the first year for it to be held at Belmont Park, and I think it worked really well.

We didn't get to see a great many acts, but those that I saw I really enjoyed. Specifically, a band named Ainote-san, who had been billed as the Whaletone Opera. The Whaletone Opera project is primarily a a collaboration between Makoto Nomura of Tokyo and Torquay musician Hugh Nankivell, however the set began with a number of songs performed by Ainote-san, Makoto Nomura's band.




I really enjoyed the set - they combined fantastic musicianship and originality with a great sense of humour and charisma. Some of the instruments were constructed out of household items such as plastic bottles, and in one piece some extra percussion was provided by one of the band members slapping parts of his body eccentrically.




Recorded on 11 July 2009

Ustad Asad Ali Khan Sahib

I encountered the following video on the blog of Sunn O))) member Stephen O'Malley. I'm enthusiastic but not very knowledgeable when it comes to Indian classical music, I find the drones and textures compelling. Anyway, this video caught my attention this morning and I thought I'd share it.

I'd be very interested in knowing whether or not visitors to this blog would find posts on sound art / music to be a valid inclusion amongst the field recording updates. Please let me know what you think!

Train from London Paddington to Heathrow

This is very back-to-front I know. But I just couldn't resist posting the recordings made in Japan before those made on the way to Japan.

Our journey began by taking the train from Exeter to London Paddington, and then on to Heathrow - also by train. We travelled light, so this wasn't so bad.


Recorded on 13 March 2009

Japan : Strolling around outside Kyoto Station

Recorded on 27 March 2009

Japan : Waiting in the Veloce coffee shop, Kyoto Station

The day of our return to Tokyo we got to Kyoto Station quite early. To kill time we went for a coffee in Caffe Veloce. My girlfriend wanted to do some last minute gift buying in one of the shopping centres in the station complex so I took the opportunity to record the hustle and bustle of the busy cafe.


Recorded on 27 March 2009

Japan : Waiting for the Shinkansen, Kyoto Station

This speaks for itself really. The Shinkansen trains are fantastic and I couldn't resist making some recordings from the Kyoto Station platform while we were waiting to jump on.


Recorded on 27 March 2009

Metro Boy guest mix for MANTIS features some of my recordings.

Metro Boy guest mix for MANTIS  by  metroboy

Japan : Rain under an umbrella

Another of our walks in Kyoto followed what was called The Philosopher's Walk (哲学の道 Tetsugaku no Michi), famed for it's beauty and popularity as a place of meditation of Philosophy Professor Kitaro Nishida.

We hired bikes from K's Place (the fantastic Hostel we were staying in), and followed the river north before bearing easterly to visit the Nanzen-ji temple.It was brilliant to be out on bikes - we covered ground much quicker, and it was a pretty exhillharating way of exploring the area. Nanzen-ji occupied a large complex with separate smaller shrines dotted around it. We had to leave the bikes while exploring it, but hopped back on to reach the beginning of the Philosopher's Walk. Just as we got there and had started munching on our Onigiri (御握り; おにぎり) it started raining. Heavily! So the rest of the day involved precariously pedalling around on fairly flimsy bikes one handed (the other holding and umbrella), in torrential rain! It was actually quite good fun in the end, but our clothes were wet through.



Recorded on 22 March 2009