Bertolozzi at the Eiffel Tower

Australia’s Radio National recently broadcast a one hour documentary about the discipline of field recording and sound art. The documentary features interviews with field recordists such as Francisco Lopez, Jacob Kirkegaard, Jodie Rose, Jospeh Bertolozzi. Follow this link to stream it online or to download it for free.

The field recordists find music inside ice floes, in the depths of cities and in rainforests, in the abandoned rooms of Chernobyl, in the sounds made by huge human constructions like the Eiffel Tower and suspension bridges.

I found the section with Jacob Kirkegaard particularly interesting. Kirkegaard recorded room tones of abandoned spaces in Chernobyl, capturing haunting wavering drones emanating from pipes in the nuclear power plant. This section can be heard at approximately 37 minutes into the documentary.

For anyone engaged in field recording, composition, or even the act of active listening this documentary is a rare treat.