The Shape of Water
Taking a deeper look into the mystical and enchanting sound worlds of waterfalls
🎧 Cascade de Léizou, Ariège Pyrénées, France - waterfall
The recording you are listening to was taken here a few weeks ago in the valley of Haut-Salat, deep in the Pyrénées mountains of Ariège in Southwestern France.
This little untamed forest sprite on the left is my daughter Pearl. She chose to jump into this waterfall just as I was about to start recording — that’s me on the right setting up my recorder in a dry spot between rocks for a close proximity capture of the Cascade de Léizou.
The recording you are listening to is completely raw and was recorded with a Sony PCM-D100. One of the reasons I love this little machine is its ability to reproduce nature sounds so pristinely with very minimal fuss. The inbuilt microphones are amazingly high standard — something that you don’t often come by on portable digital recorders. The great advantage of this device is that you can set up and record professional sound very quickly and flexibly… assuming you keep it well away from the water!
🎧 Cascade de Léizou, Ariège Pyrénées, France - waterfall… a little further back
This second recording was made at the same waterfall, but with the recorder placed further downstream from the falls, maybe 20m or so. This resulted in a much more delicate, and pleasing to the ear, recording. We hear the gentle, calming soundscape of flowing water as it caresses and glides across the mossy, rock surface.
I find it of great interest to explore these different perspectives in my recordings. Summoning the energy and attention to engage fully with nature allows us to notice its subtle nuances with greater clarity. What first appears as a deafening roar of pure brute noise can — with a shift in perspective and placement — be channeled into a contemplative trickle.
🎧 Ichinotaki Waterfall, Yuza, Yamagata, Japan - waterfall
I recall my first attempt at trying to record the sound of a waterfall — it was whilst on location in Japan, hiking through the forests in the foothills Mt. Chokai in Yuzu, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. I had been taken here by some very kind strangers I had met whilst staying nearby in Tsuruoka. They had insisted on showing me the beauty of these falls.
Dressed extremely inappropriately — by both fashion and climate standards — I tried to get as close to the falls as I possibly could, thinking that by doing so I would be able to capture and reveal the true sound of this sacred waterfall. What I found was a recording which pretty much sounds like a wall of white noise. A digital cocktail of bits and frequencies that I’m sure convinced most of you reading to stop the audio player well before the 30 second mark! I got quite soaked in the process too…
At the time, I didn’t mind too much though. I still very much like this recording as for me it represents the place that I was present in at the time, a stranger from another land trying his best to interpret an unfamiliar terrain — drunk on awe and excitement — but the recording is thin and harsh and lacking in depth. I had visited this waterfall quickly, scattering up the rocks in order to capture a sound that was complex and wild. My thoughts were focused on extracting sounds from an environment I barely knew as efficiently as I could. Reflecting now, I realise the naivety of this approach. I wasn’t prepared to invest any time in contemplating the beauty of the waterfall, so why would the waterfall gift me what I was seeking…?
Stepping away from the spray of the falls, I let myself be still. Turning my mind towards the experience of being in the present, here I was, thousands of miles from home. Wandering in a strange land on the whim of a stranger’s call. I felt an overwhelming sense of fortune, how lucky I was to be here at this moment…
I sat down, turned off my recorder and my thoughts and just listened. When I opened my eyes again, this is what I saw…
When people say there is no end to the rainbow, I tell them otherwise…
In Japan, the Shinto religion teaches us that nature is a realm of deities, divinities and spirits — of mythological, spiritual, and natural phenomena called kami. To be in harmony with the awe-inspiring aspects of nature is to be conscious of kannagara no michi - "the way of the kami").[2]Kami can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, living and non-living beings. Waterfalls are revered as powerful spirits that possess great powers. The practice of takigyo - a thousand-year-old Buddhist practice of cleansing oneself under the waterfall - is a soul purifying ritual which is believed to ward off bad luck and bring the gods of nature closer together.
Sometimes the world reveals itself to us willingly and — if only for a fragment of time… a brief second, a transitory moment — we receive a message which we should hold on to dearly. Evaluate these deeply and regularly, for here in these moments is revealed to us the true mysteries of the Universe.
🎧 Dohara-no-taki - unreleased work
“Now, it seems that a pond sits in my brain where currents once ran. On top of that, I’m throwing fewer stones across it these days; fewer ideas break the calm, and some of these ideas just sink to the bottom unpublished, left to rest in private…and that’s OK. I’m enjoying the newfound quiet and learning to live with a little more silence.”
— From The river used to rush by
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Mat
🌻
The close up recording is like an HVAC. The waterfall needs sidelong attention, which is the more distant one.
Lovely.
A lovely meditation on perspective, listening, technique and Kami,Mat.