HBM153: Klänge from Berlin

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Digital render by Jeff Emtman.

 

The composer Pauline Oliveros thought there was a difference between hearing and listening.  She defined hearing as a passive act, something done with the ears.  But she defined listening as something active saying that listening happens in the brain.  

 

Recording a dog in the Saxony region of Germany.

Sam Parker is a recordist who takes inspiration from Oliveros’ words and work.  About six years ago, on an episode of Here Be Monsters called Sam’s Japan Tapes, Sam shared dozens of recordings he made during his first (and only) trip to Japan.  He released those recordings under the name Observance as an album called Japan, 6/21 - 7/14.

On this episode, Here Be Monsters host takes two trips to Germany, and records the sounds of Christmas in Berlin, New Years in Saxony, and many hours of people and birds just going about their daily lives in the late winter and early spring. 

Before Jeff leaves on his first trip, he calls Sam Parker back, to ask for recording advice before the trip, and Sam offers three tips: 

  1. Take lots of time.

  2. Capture moments of everyday routine. 

  3. Trust your instincts

  • MM:SS - Description. (📸 = Photo)

    08:45 - Train to SeaTac airport.
    09:45 - Announcements on an Air France flight.
    11:00 - Turbulence and people rustling.
    12:30 - Berlin's Brandenburg Airport
    13:15 - A brown swan hissing and chirping
    13:30 - Boats rubbing against wooden piers and a small dog barking.
    14:15 - Cars driving on cobblestone streets.
    14:45 - Ice Skating at Berlin's Alexanderplatz 📸
    15:30 - Swing ride with metal chains at Alexanderplatz. 📸
    16:00 - Riding on the subway, then walking up several flights of stairs.
    18:45 - Radio playing advertisements, news, and Christmas music
    20:45 - A Christmas Eve service in a cathedral with a speaker reading a children's story.
    21:30 - Christmas carols playing as people mill around.
    22:00 - A wedding party in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
    23:15 - A Christmas exhibit with a lit up polar bear and fog machine.
    24:00 - Birds chirping in Berlin's Mauerpark as people walk by.
    25:00 - Crunching frosted leaves on a cold morning.
    25:30 - Walking through a forest in the Saxony Region of Southern Germany.📸
    26:15 - Whistling through hands in the forest.
    27:00 - Buying 5 kilograms of potatoes from a vending machine as a dog barks.📸
    27:30 - Mountaintop shop selling hot drinks and snacks in Czechia.
    27:45 - Chopping kindling. Distant fireworks echoing through the hills in Saxony.
    28:30 - Snaps and pops of a small fire
    29:00 - Distant fireworks to celebrate the start of 2022.
    29:30 - Close fireworks echoing.
    30:00 - A strong wind blowing on a mountaintop in Saxony.📸
    30:30 - A tree swing creaking.
    31:15 - 6AM on the outskirts of Berlin. Traffic starting, crow screaming.
    32:45 - Captive pigeons fluffing their feathers and cooing at Hasenheide Park
    34:00 - Slow motion recording of a sudden hailstorm.
    34:30 - A motorized billboard in a subway station
    35:00 - Accordion player performs in a subway station in Berlin's Mitte neighborhood.
    37:45 - Applause after a play.
    38:15 - A small bird singing several songs.
    39:30 - Church bells ringing.
    40:45 - Wind flapping the torn domes of the Teufelsberg listening station as people sing.📸
    43:00 - Walking through the forest near Teufelsberg as bikes pass.

 
Buy the album!

The recordings on this episode are available as an album called “Field Recordings: Germany, 2021-2022” and it’s available for purchase on Bandcamp, under Jeff Emtman’s pseudonym: The Black Spot.  Until June 30th, 2022, all profits from the sale of this album will be donated to The International Committee of the Red Cross. 

 

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: Remixes from HBM049: Sam’s Japan Tapes.
Photos: Jeff Emtman
Thank Yous: Sam Parker, Johanna Gilje

 
 
 

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Thank you so much, HBM Patrons.

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HBM144: Keeping A Place

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Image by Jeff Emtman. Blended photographs taken from the Ballard Bridge and Wayne Tunnel in Bothell, Washington (featuring murals by Kristen Ramirez)

 

HBM Host Jeff Emtman has always been afraid of losing his memories. Places he cares about keep getting torn down.

Forrest Perrine prepares a balloon at the Green Lake Aqua Theater.

In this episode, Jeff bikes around Seattle recording the sounds of a popping balloon to capture the sound of places he likes: Padelford Hall’s Parking Garage, The Wayne Tunnel in Bothell, his old house in Roosevelt, The Greenlake Aqua Theater, and his front porch on a snowy day.  

The sound of a popping balloon can be used to re-create a space digitally.  These popping sounds are loud ‘impulses’, and the space ‘responds’ accordingly.  These impulse responses can then be fed to an audio effect called a “convolution reverb” which interprets the impulse response and applies it to any incoming sound.  

Rick and Kathy Emtman are heard on this episode.  Forrest Perrine helped with some of the recordings.  

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot, August Friis, Serocell, Phantom Fauna

 
 
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WITW.jpg

Sponsor:

Walk in the Woods Zine

Walk in the Woods is a free mini zine that you can get in the mail!

Creator Flissy Saucier writes and draws about her experiences walking in the woods in this monthly+ publication.

You can donate to keep the project going and get additional benefits.

Get Zine!

HBM143: Laughing Rats and Dawn Rituals

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Image by Jeff Emtman. Photo of sage grouse by Bob Wick of the Bureau of Land Management. Orange sky elements are the spectrogram of the sound of the mouse courtship call heard in this episode.

Image by Jeff Emtman. Photo of sage grouse by Bob Wick of the Bureau of Land Management. Orange sky elements are the spectrogram of the sound of the mouse courtship call heard in this episode.

 

Animals sometimes make noises that would be impossible to place without context.  In this episode, three types of animal vocalizations—described by the people who recorded them. 

The monkey who lost their mother. Photo by Stephanie Foden.

Ashley Ahearn: Journalist and producer of Grouse, from Birdnote and Boise State Public Radio

Joel Balsam: Journalist and producer of the upcoming podcast Parallel Lives.  Joel co-created a photo essay for ESPN about the “pororoca”, an Amazonian wave chased each year by surfers. 

Kevin Coffey, Ph.D.: Co-creator of DeepSqueak and researcher at VA Puget Sound and the University of Washington.  Kevin co-authored the paper DeepSqueak: a deep learning-based system for detection and analysis of ultrasonic vocalizations in Nature’s Neuropsychopharmacology journal. 

Also heard: calls of the Indies Short Tailed Cricket (Anurogryllus celerinictus), which may be the perpetrator of the so-called “sonic attacks” recently reported in Cuba.  Sound sent in by HBM listener Isaul in Puerto Rico.  

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot

 
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Sponsor: Chas Co

Chas Co takes care of cats and dogs in Brooklyn (especially in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Bed Stuy and surrounding neighborhoods). 

Chas Co welcomes pets with special behavioral and medical needs, including those that other services have turned away.  They offer dog walking, cat visiting, and custom care arrangements too. 

Visit Chasco.nyc

Look, it’s Kane!

HBM134: Questionable Hobbies of the Socially Isolated

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An unspooled cassette tape. 3D art by Jeff Emtman

 

Searching for something to do during government-mandated social distancing, Here Be Monsters host Jeff Emtman recently digitized his cassette collection, and re-edited them into blackout poems and proverbs. 

Content Note: Language

While in the process of doing this, Jeff re-discovered a mixtape he made in 1999, the product of endless hours of waiting by the boombox in the basement with a hand hovering over the 🔴 button.  And on this old mixtape, a 10 year Jeff attempted to make a fancy edit: swapping out the intro of one song for another’s. It didn’t sound good at all, but it may have actually been Jeff’s first ever audio cut, predating the start of HBM by over a decade.  

On this episode, Jeff shares a couple dozen of his recent blackout proverbs and short poems, made from a variety of bootlegged self-help audiobooks found in the thrift stores of New England. 

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Editor: Bethany Denton
Music: The Black Spot, August Blicher Friis

 

Jeff’s author headshot from a short book about aardvarks that he wrote for an assignment in third grade, circa 1997.

Jeff’s mixtape from 1999.

HBM112: Negative Space

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image by Jeff Emtman

 

Back when HBM host Jeff Emtman was a photographer, he used to solve his problems with walks in the woods.  There, he’d see the ways that branches frame the sky. As an artistic concept, negative space gets hogged a lot by the visual arts.  In this episode, Jeff attempts to wrestle the concept into the sonic world; address his current problems by listening to the spaces between words and by listening to the ambiences of a semi-empty, possibly haunted hotel.  

Below are some excerpts from Jeff’s ~2011 photo series called Portraits without People and the original version of HBM021: Potential Energy…the version with words.

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Editor: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spot

 
 

👇 Excerpts from Jeff Emtman’s 2011 Series, Portraits Without People 👇

HBM109: Untitled Noises of New York (Sound Matters)

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Central Park in New York City. Graphic by Jeff Emtman.

 

HBM host Jeff Emtman travels to New York City in an effort to fulfill open-ended recording assignments issued from afar by Tim Hinman for an episode of Bang & Olufsen’s Sound Matters podcast.  

It should be noted that in this episode, Tim incorrectly states that Jeff is from the “lentil capital of Washington State.” In fact, Jeff is from the self-proclaimed lentil capital of the world.

This episode was produced and scored by Tim Hinman.  Tim also hosts the fantastic podcast Third Ear.

Read an interview with Jeff about the creation of HBM over on Bang and Olufsen’s blog.  Interview by Nathaniel Budzinski.

Producer: Jeff Emtman
Editor: Tim Hinman
Music: Tim Hinman

 

January ice on the Hudson. Video by Jeff Emtman.