THE LANDSCAPE OF SOUND

1 Feb

JMT Campfire Performance from The Muir Project on Vimeo.

The first fraction of a second in the video reveals the symphony of sounds at Lower Vidette Meadow. All of these natural sounds combine with the musical performance creating a sonic fingerprint of a specific place along the trail, it has a unique acoustic resonance that can be heard if you listen closely.

A bird sings: It is an intermittent whistling, you can hear this high pitched sound reverberate through the valley. This singing bird resounds throughout the track in key moments giving a sense of time and space illuminating the grandeur of the landscape as the sound bounces off of trees, rocks on the nearby hill, and granite cliffs in the distance.

A creek grinds: A combination of sounds fill out the lower frequencies of this track, one of which is a swift moving creek about fifty yards behind us. The cold rushing water from nearby snowmelt moves over a sand and rock bottom tugging at bushes and branches, this creek grinds out a low tone as it twists through the valley.

The shushing of trees: As the wind peels through the pines high above the camp it buzzes through the needles and branches producing a kind of white noise, this and the sound of wind through other nearby trees with larger leaves adds to the sound of rushing water and the cracking fire.

A fire hums and cracks: The fire provides a combination of chance percussion with its unpredictable pops and snaps, these sounds reside in the high to mid frequency range while a low continual breathing sound prevails from the burning.

People, Instruments and Music: This video is a culmination many different talents, from the cameras shooting both video and stills, to the recording of sound and the music, it was certainly a collaborative effort to provide a glimpse into this moment on the trail. The center of this moment is an improvisation with a ukulele and toy glockenspiel on a little composition PB and I came up with out there. The sound of the instruments reverberate throughout the environment coloring the tone and blending in with the natural elements. You can hear people humming, breathing, laughing, shuffling around and lastly clapping and talking. All of this goes into the specifics of this place and how we as people responded to it, reflecting in our expression something about what it felt like to be there.

-Bernard Chadwick (Toy Glockenspiel)