Auditory Scenes: environmental sonic improvisation (3″CDr, Lona Record, 2008)
Brief Description:
Sound walk, field recording or phonography is not just a way to re-listening and re-discover the sound of a place; it is also a way for reproducing the sonic environment. To a certain extend, this piece was made by the improvisation of pointing with different direction of the location by the microphone. With a slowly movement of getting inside and outside of the sonic environment and the direction of the microphone, what we will listen is not just a purely sonic representation of the environment, but it is a slowly transformed progress, something happened within the environment. This work corresponds with French sound artist, Yannick Dauby talking about phonography: “ It is about a practice during which the sound recordist will engage in a privileged relationship with an environment, through certain equipment. The result of this work, the final product, will therefore be a subjective point of view, a sensory experience that must take into account the position chosen by the sound recordist. Phonography does not allow us simply to present sounds, it requires us to present a specific hearing of those sounds. ”
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聲音漫步(sound walk)、田野錄音(Field Recording)或留聲術(Phonography)不單是再一次重新發現以及再次聆聽某一地方的聲音, 而更可以作為一種創作的手段。這個作品的目的, 不單止旨在重新發現後巷某一些的聲音的特質, 而更加是通過這個聲音環境來再一次生產、創造一種領聽的經驗。通過一種即興的方式, 以不同的獲取聲源的方向以及在環境中來來回回, 聽到的是一個緩慢的聲音進程, 一個已被再一次再呈現的建築物與建築物之間的環境, 事件穿插於其中。這個作品回應著法國聲音藝家澎葉生(Yannick Dauby)論及留聲術:「它所牽涉的是一種實踐，錄音者在那之中，以他的某種裝備，和他所在的環境發展出的一段獨特的關係。而其工作成果, 也就會是種主觀性的視角, 而且這是由錄音者所選取的角度所帶來的一個感官經驗。收音實踐並非只是傳遞聲音, 它也是在傳遞”聽”。」
Auditory Scenes: Environmental Sonic Improvisation (20'03)
Recorded by Edwin Lo on 31-12-2007, Causeway Bay, HK.
Special thanks to Tita Hui, Heiward Mak.
Best heard with headphone. Cover Design By Edwin Lo.
You can preview and purchase the track at http://fragments.bandcamp.com/ , DISCOGS or contact through artist.
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Review:
Edwin Lo，香港聲音藝術工作者和田野錄音工作者。他的田野錄音是主動聆聽、主動創作，也是概念和體驗的結合。
這張唱片是2007年最後一天在銅鑼灣錄的。乍一聽，像是提著錄音機在街上走，錄了很多空調壓縮機或者風扇的聲音，混濁，又有循環的起伏。然後遇到人群，倒計時慶祝新年。但奇怪的是，為什麼總在慶祝新年？20分鐘內，一共發生了5次？難道是後期拼出來的？
好作品就不用問那麼清楚了。這絕不是紀錄片式的田野錄音作品，也不是敘事聲音劇。這是神秘的聲音世界，由混沌的噪音和具像的人聲構成，兩者對應，加大了對方的獨立性，使混沌更深，也使人聲更抽離。一遍一遍發生的倒計時，讓時間感完全錯亂，消失在混沌中。這唱片應該是不斷重復聽下去的。但最終的突然終止，又打破了對混沌的沉溺。就像之前某段低頻，不知道是來自壓縮機還是發動機，總之盤旋起伏，越來越過癮，卻並沒有被Edwin堅持下去，這種抑制激情的做法，總是讓聽者收獲著來自自身的寧靜。
標題說到，這是環境聲音的即興演奏。提著錄音機，在聲音源之間走動、停留、改變方向，這種游戲有時候比拿樂器玩即興還要爽。Edwin應該也是個中高手。但我的確沒有聽出來，他究竟是怎樣實現了5次倒計時。放棄對這個秘密的研究之後，我還是聽了很多遍這張唱片。那無意義的，不可辨認的聲音進入了我的靜謐。是誰？說了什麼？撕開了什麼？關門？走路？……那長時間的嗡嗡聲，夾雜著運轉中的雜音，像Lilith的催眠長音，沉悶中別有天地；也或許只有沉悶而敏感的人才會理解並被感動。每次結束之後，我都聽了很久我房間裡的雜音。（顏峻）
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Review on Edwin Lo – Auditory Scenes: Environmental Sonic Improvisation on Sonomu (UK)
For this piece, Edwin Lo collected field recordings in Causeway Bay, one of the most built-up areas in Hong Kong and thus, in the world.
I am assuming that instead of roaming its boulevards of shopping and business, he sought the areas underneath, the urban redoubts of many-levelled concrete, parking garages, loading docks, and dirty grey ventilation shafts, the places very little natural light ever reaches. The kind of structures shunned by the average pedestrian but necessary to quite literally support the infrastructure.
Lo´s brief recording feels longer than it actually is, perhaps due to the oppressive nature of the environment, which tranlates auditorily as drones, rumbles and the sound of air being continuously sucked out of it. However, there is a strange human presence, a recurring burst of crowd noise – not a very big one – raising its voice in either protest or in some kind of celebration. Were they caught by accident or were they brought there and conducted by Lo? Each of their numerous appearances is brought to an end by the commanding blow of a whistle.
This unique feature acts like a kind of “audio parkour”, sounds bounding about the underpass, making dangerous leaps, scudding down ridiculously acute angles.
Review by Stephen Fruitman
http://www.lona-records.com/news.html
http://sonomu.net/text/~edwin-lo-auditor/
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While I can easily say that this is Edwin Lo’s debut venture into an actual CD release, the Auditory Scenes series breaks from the mold of traditional releases into an actual subcategory of art for the man. MP3′s like “We are Still Young to Play this Game” and “Tsing Yi” are available online at his website and he has been featured in numerous exhibitions and performances, the latest of which is still going on for any Hong Kong residents that come across this (Art in the Park: Making the Familiar Unfamiliar, which runs until January 31st.) Edwin Lo is also no simple amateur picking up sounds with a microphone in alleyways across Hong Kong. He has received several awards for his work, a grant towards his schooling, and a grant towards and degree from his university, the School of Creative Media (SGM). Though Edwin Lo may have a darker edge than most field recordings listeners may be accustomed to, it fits his urban lifestyle and tells a story beyond simple noises. While one can certainly not call Edwin’s style “music”, his exploration of sound certainly perks up the senses just as well as any traditional music today, and its lack of absurd compression in the mastering phase allows for a enveloping listening experience.
Auditory Scenes: Environmental Sonic Improvisation was recorded on New Years Eve, 2007, somewhere in Hong Kong’s crowded Causeway Bay area. The area is located on the Northern shore between Junk Bay and the Sulphur Channel, and Western Harbour Crossing and Cross Harbour Tunnel. It’s unclear specifically where Edwin was at the time, but its clear that the recording took place during the New Years’ countdown. Environmental Sonic Improvisation starts out ominously, droning air and the humming overwhelming sound of electricity and generators filling the air around. The first glance at humanity that we get to hear is actually disturbingly dark, sounding much more on the scale of tortured screams and ritual chanting in far in the distance than any kind of celebration. The second round of microphone placement on the environment paints a very different picture of obvious celebration and it becomes clear that though the album cover may give off a big of an under-dweller urban dark ambient appeal, its simply a darker observation of sounds on an optimistic scale. While those around him celebrate, count down the numbers to the new years, Edwin observes from the shadows, with his microphones, surrounded by the haunting, unchanging hum of the human electrical life support system.
We relive this memory, this moment in the mind of Edwin, over and over again until the 20 minutes of fascinating sound perceptions stops abruptly with laughing from strangers and the same familiar hum of urban life. It really makes Mr. Lo seem inhuman in a way, that he rather associated himself with the environments surrounded by his recording process than with human companionship on a night known around the world as a time to be with friends and loved ones. That realization gives Environmental Sonic Improvisation more than just a scientific view of sound recording an observation, but instills a bit of melancholy and desolation into the picture as well. So, in the end, ironically, a genre as removed from humanity as field recordings ends up with all too human emotion getting caught in the mix at the end. Really, its a very promising start for this young sound artist, and hopefully his commitment to this strange world of audio perception will continue to bring him success in the future.
Auditory Scenes: Environmental Sonic Improvisation comes packaged as a 3″ CD-R limited to 50 copies. The CD-R itself is white with the artist name, Catalogue #, and label logo on a rectangular sticker. The booklet is a folded cardboard sleeve, on the back containing the track listing and recording details, links, and hand-numbered limitation. The front cover is as peculiar as the music itself, containing a warning sticker in English and Chinese regarding warning for poisonous rat bait. While I’m unsure what the sticker pertains to for certain, I can only imagine that it came from the environment that Edwin was recording from and thus goes further to detail the urban compact city landscape in which the recording took place. Excellent usage of an otherwise untelling image.
http://www.heathenharvest.com/article.php?story=20100116103247143
