An abandoned scout camp, known in Russia as Pioneers camp, located by the village of Zhutchki (zhou-tch-’key) near Sergiyev Posad. We went there with the local Radonezheye TV crew to film the last leg of this bike race. ‘The site is protected by dogs’, we have been warned by an old shabby sign plate on the gates, but it is more likely it is now protected by all sorts of insects instead.
Recorded May 23rd, 2010 (SP-TFB-2)
Published February 13th, 2011.
Evgeny Murtola is originally from Pskov in the north of Russia currently living in Zürich, Switzerland. Thanks to him we are about to move to the Christmas Eve service at the Zürich’s St. Peter Church.
The priest is reciting the search-for-God story titled The God Is Where the Love Is by Leo Tolstoy, then the magnificent music is followed by the breathtaking pauses and rustles, the candle light is shared, the fund-raising begins, and a parishioner’s mobile phone sends out a distinctive plea for recharge.
Apart from providing us with this outstanding hour-long (!) recording, Evgeny has kindly made a second-by-second transcript of it. That’s just fantastic.
If you favour his debut effort – and I hope you do – then please drop him a line at exinocactus@gmail.com, he will certainly appreciate it. Otherwise, you may leave a comment at the end of this post.
TRANSCRIPT
01. [0:00 - 2:55] Music. Pipe organ. Stille Nacht, one of the most widely known Christmas carols.
02. [3:04 - 6:23] Priest. Excerpts from the Bible about the birth of Joseph and Mary’s son Jesus. ‘…and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them’, Luke, 2
03. [6:25 - 8:44] Singing. Vom Himmel hoch da komm’ ich her, a popular hymn
04. [8:50 - 10.42] Priest. Welcoming speech, and the prayer
05. [11:12 - 17:25] Music. Trio 1 – A. Corelli, Violinsonate in A-Dur. Largo-Allegro
06. [17:30 - 22.45] Priest. Reading of The God Is Where the Love Is, Leo Tolstoy’s Christmas story of Martin the shoemaker, who thought he had heard from God one day, tried to spot him in the window again but with no result. The next day brought him a bunch strangers such as an old man, an apple peddler and a boy thief – subsequently he offered his help to each one, with all of them turning out to be the divine incarnation, as it was later explained by the same voice at the end of the day. ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’, Matthew, 25
07. [22:59 - 26:15] Music. Trio 2 – J.S. Bach, Sonate A-Dur. Andante un poco 8
08. [26:46 - 38:01] Priest. Preaching a sermon, touchig upon the role and social significance of the Church in the modern society. The service is paused for a minute as the priest leaves the altar and goes up the elevated pulpit
09. [38:09 - 42:19] Music. Trio 3 – T. Albioni, Aus Violinsonate g-moll, Largo-Allegro
10. [42:37 - 44:34] Priest. The prayer. ‘Lord, You have illuminated our lives. Many people all over the world and in our country as well are starving. Many children are unhappy because they do not know that they are loved and welcomed. Please give us courage and strengh to speak up and share these words with each other’
11. [44:35 - 45:20] Silence. ‘Let’s make our silent prayers for our beloved ones’
12. [45:20 - 45:59 - 52:03] Candles are lit. As Evgeny puts it, ‘The priest has passed along the aisles with the candle lit with the altar candles, and then passed the fire to those at the aisles’ sides to pass it along to their neighbours. That made us feel warm and joyful )’
13. [45:59 - 52:03] Music. Trio 4
14. [52:17 - 53:36] Priest. Thanking the musicians and informing that all donations go to the construction works being held in Erithrea
15. [53:37 - 56:17] Singing. Kleiner Gott, a Christmas carol
16. [56:26 - 57:36] Priest. The prayer
17. [57:37 - 58:06] Singing. Stille Nacht.
Recorded on December 24th, 2010 at the Christmas Eve service in St.Peter Church with Soundman OKM II binaural mics and Zoom H1 recorder
Published on February 8th, 2011
Photo by dr.Jaus/Flickr.
For more information on St. Peter Church, Zürich
The original sound might not be as good as its echo. Krasnozavodsk town centre, the annual town celebration, and the singer’s voice is lost in the labyritnh of the nearby five storey blocks of flats.
Recorded October 2nd 2010 (CA-14 omni)
Published January 10th, 2011
Just before Christmas I’ve got a message from a reader from Naltchik suggesting a shortwave band radio recording. Gotcha! This is the RTÉ Radio 1 from Ireland, one of the first full-service broadcasters in the world.
This particular piece of audio has traveled all over the planet – from the Dublin studio to the relay station in Meyerton, South Africa, from there to Veliky Novgorod, Russia where I recorded it while on holidays. Non-binaural recording, headphones are not required.
This letter brought back memories of something I was completely carried away by. I will get back to this later but now let’s start start with this song from the late 70s. Do you remember this?
It wasn’t just video that killed the Golden Age of radio stars of course – we have lots more ways to listen to sounds from far away (including the old-time radio dramas) these days so that the whole idea of transmitting audio via some electronic medium is here to stay. But it would never be the same for sure, and what really makes the difference are the side effects caused by the carrier drawbacks.
Ah those lovely drawbacks! Are we the last generation to remember say – the buzz of the utterly imperfect, equally enigmatic, unpredictable and charming shortwave radio? It was quite a proper medium whose popularity was doubled and subsequently diminished by the number of external circumstances.
Growing up behind (or outside?) the Iron Curtain brought with it its own joys. Just like the shortwave bands of the old Okean radio. The whole world was packed into this wooden box with the drum-like rotating band switch. The languages you’ve never heard before, the pop charts revelations (its the mid-late-80s, mind you), the mysterious number stations, ham radio – which if you didn’t have the lower/upper SSB (single-side band) knob on your machine sounded like an alien speech, and the static – which of course wasn’t the static but the real aliens trying to get in touch with the mankind.
Tuning to your favourite show has become much easier with the Internet – it’s all about the ‘click of a button’, like they say, a true cliché of the modern days. But when the click is done the one thing is clearly missing, the presence of an intimate friend somewhere near. Radio was my best friend for many years. It wasn’t just listening – it was a ritual, resulting in tons of not-so-necessary information about the dramatic changes in the French government, or some knowledge of Romanian steel industry, or really nice samples of South Korean hip-hop. Their northern counterparts played nothing but ardent revolutionary songs on some weird badly-modulated off-band frequencies.
Many radio stations have put an end to their international broadcasts later on – the external services of Swiss, Austrian or Norwegian radio are among those that are no longer can be heard, but I still could easily find familiar voices or idents of many stations from those era that has moved over to the Internet.
They are still good, and they are not to blame that it doesn’t feel like they’re speaking to you now anymore. The tone gets clearer, no hum, no static, but it’s just as confusing as listening to all those so called ‘remastered’ audio tracks of old movies and cartoons sacrificed by the TV perfectionist bosses itching for the ‘modern’ sound to be found everywhere.
Why is that? It is really difficult to explain – just as explaining the feel of rewinding C-90 cassette spinning around a pen or pencil as you are trying to save the Walkman’s pre-alcaline and non-yet-rechargable batteries power. And does one on the verge of going to rant about modern life have to explain?
As to the RTÉ recording I have started with – there’s a minute-long gap in this shortwave transmission, not a very uncommon thing in the world of shortwave radio where the stations are dealing not only with complicated transmitters and huge antennas but with enormous distances between the studio and the relay station. Noise and fading are natural environment and aren’t something listeners would be really angry with. Signals may also disappear, leaving you face to face with this gurgling and hissing universe where voices and comets are put on a par.
Recorded July 2nd 2010 (Grundig YB-80 analogue output)
Published January 7th, 2011.
A street vendor selling vodolazki – polo-neck sweaters, close by the VDNKh tube station, Moscow. Non-binaural recording, headphones are not required.
Recorded November 5th, 2010 (R09HR onboard mics)
Published October 7th, 2010.
We don’t hear much about Iceland and even less is heard from there. The only news that reaches us these days concerns the state of the Icelandic economy, it’s all about the recession impact, the debts and the protests.
But there’s something missing from all those reports. For example – the almost shamanic drums of those very protesters appearing on the front page of Hljóðmynd – the field recording blog from Iceland, located at http://fieldrecording.net.
It is not only about the protesters of course. Hljóðmynd features a bunch of impressive nature recordings, a number of live recordings, a bit of technical advice, all muffled up with those beautiful Icelandic letters with lots of dashes and umlauts all over. There is not a single English word in Hljóðmynd except for the url addresses.
Hljóðmynd means Sound Image. This is the case when your trusty Google Translate cannot be fully trusted – what it offers is Sound File which makes the difference. But it could serve as a decent tool anyway if you want to break the spell of not knowing and get to know what this recording is all about.
The website is run by an electrician from Reykjavik named Magnus Bergsson. Last week I contacted Magnus and asked him about Hljóðmynd the inspiration behind it. He kindly answered my questions which I’m really grateful for.
Taking up DIY audio as a hobby in the 70s he got carried away with live performances of Icelandic artists. Magnus wasn’t happy with the quality of those recordings he has heard before so he decided to make his own tapes. From the 1983 to 1995 he has recorded a lot of bands from the likes of jazz-funk Mezzoforte to Sugarcubes with not yet world famous Bjork. But most of his time was spent out in a field after finding out that if listened through speakers those nature sounds may act as a cure or as a lullaby or even as a party background.
Magnus says his major interest still lies in nature recordings but living in the capital means less opportunities available for that. He doesn’t drive a car and has no intention to so he doesn’t take his mics out in the field that often escaping the omnipresent traffic noise. But if he has a chance you can be sure it was worth waiting for.
Listening to those recordings it is hard to believe that Icelandic nature is relatively quiet – as Magnus puts it. The island can’t boast about having noisy wild animals or bugs only birds in Spring, but Hljóðmynd manages to yield great results even in such a quiet environment.
One of my favourites recordings is made on Good Friday this year – the chilling snowstorm easily turns your cosy and warm evening with a cup of tea handy into something different.
Published October 15th, 2010.
Slideshow:
Recorded October 8th, 2010 (CA-14)
Published October 10th, 2010.
