From the Sea Shore to the Dance Floor
A day in the life of a techno loving field recordist / nature loving techno DJ
Listen to everything until it all belongs together and you are part of it.
I find myself to be in situations sometimes that I feel only pure gratitude for the way things go…
Here on this beach, surrounded by the curious residents of this small community on the southern east coast of Marseille, gazing out towards the vast Mediterranean Sea — we have gathered here to listen to the sounds of the shoreline.
It’s a privilege and a passion to share this day with these individuals. I’m here leading a series of field recording workshops programmed in co-operation with the city of Marseille’s public library network — though I’m not so much teaching as I am sharing my experience and helping to forge new ones — equipped with my hefty kit of mics, headphones, recorders and gadgets ready for a full day of sonic adventure!
Workshops such as these are a great way to practice your craft. As novice, intermediate or experienced as you may be, they offer an exposure to two key factors vital to progression with and understanding of the craft — equipment and the elements — all whilst embracing the natural world that many of us find seldom time for in our busy daily routines.
The world, then, is full of sounds. Listen…
Openly attentive to whatever is vibrating, listen…
Sit quietly for a moment and receive.
— R. Murray Schafer
Whilst many would argue that perhaps the city of Marseille is not the best location for recording the nuanced sounds of Nature, I would have to say that despite the many challenges, you’d be surprised to discover what lies deep beneath the surface…
Geofon recording of the tide rolling in. Buried beneath the sand, this microphone is capable of picking up vibrations from beneath the Earth’s surface…
Hydrophone recording of the shallow pools of water that form between the large rocks of a sea wall on the Plage de Bonneveine
Hydrophone recording of the hissing profile of the sea. A strange phenomenon formed from the movement of the waves as they carry the silt, sand and shell to shore
The sounds collected from these workshops will form the foundations of a new soundscape work that I’m currently sculpting in the studio.
With the artistic support of the wonderful project — I’ll be sharing something very special with you shortly…
You can read more about the incredible AudioSpaces project in this recent interview :
AudioSpaces
“AudioSpaces explores the potential of recording and listening to audio pinned to a map. Through our app, we hope to facilitate the power of audio to store and revisit memories, allowing us to share and return to the events that matter to us — exactly where they happened”
And then came the weekend…
After finishing a week of workshops exploring the soundscapes and stories of the lush Mediterranean shorelines on the east side of town — I took a sharp turn and short metro ride towards the city centre.
I had been invited to perform with a new multidisciplinary arts collective — le Jardin des Muses — as part of their launch event — REVERIE D’UN SOIR — hosted at The People, a kind of open air arts space / hostel / exhibition space in the happening Joliette district.
I’d agreed to play two sets. One opening up to welcome guests with a soft ambient set digging out sounds from the Sonic Tapestries archive and intertwining them my own sonic explorations using the very field recordings I had been collecting earlier that week on the coast — a weaving, winding, hypnotic assembly of textures and frequencies.
Take a listen to the set below…
The second set focused on the hypnotic electronic sounds that have been finding their way into my late night DJ sets.
This was my first time mixing in Marseille to a fairly techno-centric crowd. The city has a thirst for rave culture that pushes it forward as a great destination for pop-up clandestine parties such as this one. The city is awash with a phenomenal talent pool of DJs, producers and promoters. The opening DJ spun records from a fine collection of early breakbeat and deep house with its roots well researched in early 90’s rave ready warm up sets.
I had prepped a set of deep, melodic techno with a choice sprinkle of hardgroove — a shuffle, percussive sub-genre of techno music which finds its origins in the early 90’s. You can read more about this on this nicely assembled RA article — A History of Hardgroove in Ten Tracks.
These selections reflect another angle to my listening practice — standing on the shores listening to the ocean waves and watching as participants of my field recording workshops are enlightened by the beauty and musicality hidden within the sounds of nature I find a symmetry — a connecting thread that bonds the frequencies between that which is external to our bodies and that which gets absorbed within.
In this process, lies the magic of sound.
What I find so hypnotic is the pure power of this music, just as I find hypnotic the sound of crashing waves. The mysterious patterns of the Universe reveal themselves temporarily…
Watching the crowd vibrate and oscillate. Revelling in the chaos of it all, here, I am fully present.
As writes in his brilliant post From the temple to the garden :
Today, we live in the age of chaos media… entropy has reached an accelerated state…
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After all.. the dance floor is one of the most powerful places we have to discover who we are…
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Thank you for being here with me.
Mat
🌻
