JrF: when & why did you become interested in field recording ?
SW: i think i have always been interested in field recording, or at least in tuning in to my immediate sonic environment, but the turning point for me was when invited to join a group of artists on a research trip to iceland. i was asked to produce music to accompany the visual pieces that would be produced by the other three artists.one of the artists was the painter kathryn thomas, who took along a couple of cameras in order to collect source material to refer to on our return. with this in mind i took a minidisc recorder and akg vocal mic, for which i had to buy a separate preamp, in order top collect as much sonic reference material as possible.on being out in the frozen wastes of the icelandic countryside one thing became apparent - i would have to actively seek out sound sources. this became part of the process that i love - heading out on my own, relying on my ears rather than my eyes to find a point of interest, a seldom heard sound, a sound most people miss, or just accept as part of the experience of being in a certain location. i am continually excited by this process of discovery, and i'm pretty sure i always will be!
JrF: how do you use your field recordings in your own artistic output ?
SW: field recordings are the focus of my work. as stated above, i am forever trying to find elusive and seldom heard sounds, bringing them to the focus of the listener.i will bring up what seems to be a controversial topic here - processing sounds. for me, whether i process a sound or not depends entirely on the nature of the sound, and the project the work is involved with. if a sound requires no processing to be evocative, it's left alone, but i have discovered new tones and timbres when pitch shifting, time stretching or eq'ing, which are essential to some of my compositions.this brings me to summarise what it is i do - i compose with field recordings, which in a way is processing the sounds anyway - even capturing them with a certain microphone, using a certain recording device is processing them. i build imagined environments using material from real environments - but reality is subjective... and sounds are no doubt heard differently by each individual.
JrF: do you regard the sounds you capture as a musical element (keeping in mind that the conventional definition of 'music' is rapidly becoming obsolete) or definatly as 'sound' ? is this definition important ? does it matter ?
SW: i definitely regard the raw sound material i record as musical, as compositional building blocks, but i'm not sure i would class myself as a musician. i played guitar and sang in bands for many years, and even then had a problem with the term musician, as i am not musically trained. i feel these terms only need to be employed when trying to explain what it is i do.i have noticed over the years a negative reaction to the term 'sound artist', but if you have to explain what it is you do - why are you recording waves with a microphone that sits under the water, or a rattling train door with a bottle cap (contact mic courtesy of matt davies!) - to 'the general public', for want of a better expression, it perfectly sums up what i'm doing.
JrF: has the act of making field recording had an effect (positive or negative) on the way you listen to your everyday surroundings and how has it affected the way you listen to other music and sound (if at all) ?
SW: i am probably a lot more aware of the sounds of my everyday surroundings, although the process has been a natural one, and therefore not that noticeable. i tend to listen to more abstract artists and music than i would have done five years ago, especially as i'm always exchanging work with other artists, so have a steady flow of cd's to listen to.maybe the most noticeable effect my work has had on me is how i listen to, or notice, sound when used in or with film. unsuitable, or just plain predictable, sound design can ruin a film for me - it probably always did, but i didn't realise why at the time. i hope i haven't strayed too far from the questions asked in my answers, but i was on a roll!my current release can be found here:
http://earthmp.org/EMP_Net_Label/EMP_Releases/darkwintemp_releases.html
my preference would be the 'winter lights edition' re:mp001b.
forthcoming....
jez riley french - ‘instamatic: snowdonia’
a document of listening, simply
6 tracks focusing on fence wire recordings & listening to the wind
available as a limited edition, full size taiyo yuden cd mounted on an art card + additional postcard
Review by Daniel Crokaert from 'The Field Reporter' website:
In his Instamatic series, Jez riley French invites us to share his moments of fortunate listening like they are, without make-up nor intellectualizations, retouches or alterations of the source, except a careful selection and probably a bit of equalization…
A hike within some magnificent natural region of North Wales, namely Snowdonia, led Jez to look particularly into the wind, that wind which speaks to us, while sweeping at the same timeendlessly across ever changing landscapes…
that air which circulates, lifts, makes particles, objects and surfaces vibrate, suggesting their outlines and concrete features…
But, far more than a report about a physical truth, the work quickly switches over to the extra-ordinary, underlining a very personal way of experiencing, of giving another dimension to things, and our environment…
Vast palette of amplified metallic resonances of fences planted in the isolation of a still preserved nature…agitation, vibrations, ferruginous supplications…a whole universe stands out, and submits to the laws of another one…a unhurried play of echoes and reflections coming out of the insignificant, and which reminds us constantly that our perceptions are fluctuating, eminently subjective, and tributary of their “captation tools”, but that they can also be the starting point of unexpected emotions…
“There’s an aesthete within us all “ seems to be, roughly speaking, what Jez whispers to us.
Through his care, his methodical record, his sense of listening, the creation of his own range of microphones, Jez acts like a revealer, a non-standard intermediary…
“Snowdonia” succeeds in closing our eyes slipping us into a long travelling through shaggy herbs, dishevelled by an insistent breeze – a Malickian scene…
Just next to us, trembling & bending wires, streaking the rust tones of a jaded vegetation…pebbles shrouded in history shape long grey veins studding the country as far as the eye can see…in the faraway, the shadow of hills asleep, peaceful guardians of a permanent sight…
In our ears, clicks, muffled murmurs of cold metal, aeolian moan, all the tense sensoriality of the world…
“Snowdonia” ends up ringing like the name of a mythical place where one has rendezvous with the other-worldliness…that other-worldliness, disguised under common appearances, here finely caught, and alongside which we often pass by in total indifference…
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