I visited the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm today for a exhibition of "singing insects" which mostly was a collection of sounds of insects and the main purposes from the sounds etc. I became totally overwhelmed by a lot of the sounds (here's a small collection from the exhibition: http://www.nrm.se/sv/meny/besokmuseet/utstallningar/sjungandeinsekter.15041.html ) and tried to think of artists that either have used sounds of insects extensively and/or done untreated field recordings). The Dave Phillips LP on that Greek label came to mind - are there any others? Surely there must be.
dunno if it was a joke or not but housecore records or whatever it was called, necrophagia guys label was supposed to put out a record of him and others crushing bugs.
neurosis did something with bugs too, havent heard it but it seemed neat
bugs are cool, no way of getting around it. swarming,hissing, all kinds of noises and perfectly build.
Quote from: S.C. on June 27, 2011, 12:01:07 AM
There was an insect based festival in London last year that I went to called Pestival. One of the events was a night of music using insects sounds and recordings curated by Chris Watson. The piece that he presented that evening was based on recordings of honey bees if I remember correctly.
I just looked up Chris Watson to see if he had done any specific insect related releases and he's just released a CD on Touch which contains 'The Bee Symphony' which was recorded at the event I was talking about. http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=464
I know there are some other people but my memory isn't working very well at the moment, if I remember I will post them.
Check this out -
The Act of Being Stung (http://www.touchradio.org.uk/touch_radio_41_the_honey_bees_of_cherry_garden_farm.html). Amazing!
http://www.discogs.com/Tucker-Martine-Broken-Hearted-Dragonflies/release/1170450
Graeme Revell's "The Insect Musicians" LP + CD on Musique Brut/Side Effects Records came to mind whilst reading this.
(http://www.recordsale.org/cdpix/g/graeme_revell-the_insect_musicians.jpg)
essential stuff (oops, too late) :-)
http://www.discogs.com/Russell-Haswell-Recorded-While-It-Actually-Happened/release/1694242 (http://www.discogs.com/Russell-Haswell-Recorded-While-It-Actually-Happened/release/1694242)
Side A is a field recording of pretty much what the title of the track says. Side B is the "sound" of an electrical flyswatter. A nice tape.
Francisco López is interesting in this context, a scientist in the field of biology as he is. Jungle/insect sounds recorded during his research trips to various places in South and Central America permeat several of his albums, La Selva (http://www.v2.nl/archive/works/v228/) being perhaps the best example.
http://www.discogs.com/Tribes-Of-Neurot-Adaptation-And-Survival-The-Insect-Project/release/312984
This is the aforementioned Tribes of Neurot concept album focused on insects as source sounds. It's 2 CDs which are designed to be played simultaneously.
Heretogo - thanks for the Russell Haswell information. I have managed to get a copy through the discogs link. Excellent.
Thanks again.
Steve.
Quote from: Steve on June 27, 2011, 12:19:13 AM
Graeme Revell's "The Insect Musicians" LP + CD on Musique Brut/Side Effects Records came to mind whilst reading this.
I have this for sale/trade if anyone's interested.
I just remembered that there was a concert with Chinese crickets some years ago at the Ethnographic Museum of Stockholm. The ethno-musicologist Bengt Berger (known from prog bands such as Arbete & Fritid and Archimedes Badkar, that were featured on the NWW list) and a couple of other jazz musicians played along with the crickets. I didn't go but heard from friends that it was good.
Berger also released an album entitled Ting Qiu - Listening to Autumn featuring this cricket ensemble on his label Country & Eastern. It seems to be still available from their website, at least in mp3 format... http://www.countryandeastern.se/?page_id=9&album_id=ce06 (http://www.countryandeastern.se/?page_id=9&album_id=ce06)
The sound of crickets slowed down to 'human speed'. The speed determined by matching the average life-span of a cricket to that of a human. Quite amazing things in there.
https://soundcloud.com/acornavi/robert-wilson-crickets-audio (https://soundcloud.com/acornavi/robert-wilson-crickets-audio)
I've recorded the crawling, physical sound of mealworm larvaes with a contact microphone... but it was not so good, because the worms were too tiny, there were not so much in the box, and the mic should be more sensitive. I will try to recreate it with better circumstances.. bigger larvaes, more amount, and maybe better microphone. Then, it will be good.
Good stuff! One of the things I love about this site is that I don't feel weird that I never oil the various doors in my house, so that I can listen to them squeak. It's interesting what great sounds I get from different hand pressures on the knob. If people can get into insect sounds with contact mics, I'm right at home here! :)
http://invertabit.bandcamp.com/music
Quote from: post-morten on June 27, 2011, 02:42:04 PM
Francisco López is interesting in this context, a scientist in the field of biology as he is. Jungle/insect sounds recorded during his research trips to various places in South and Central America permeat several of his albums, La Selva (http://www.v2.nl/archive/works/v228/) being perhaps the best example.
I really dig his bio-acoustics approach.
Jeph Jerman has played with this on his Harvester Ants recording, though it isn't one of his better releases.
http://www.discogs.com/Jeph-Jerman-Harvester-Ants-March-24th-2001/release/924019
JGrzinich was a bit more successful with a similar idea. Check the video. The guy is a master craftsman.
http://maaheli.ee/main/archives/3054
and this QR Ghazala release:
http://www.discogs.com/Q-R-Ghazala-Threnody-To-The-New-Victims-Of-Hiroshima/release/260495
argh cant remember the name of the guy who also did some kinda biosonix thing bout insect life............... and plants too for that matter..
haha that insect musicians album by graeme revell was awesome when i was young, i got it on tape from a local goth guy who was older than me... now it sounds kinda cheezy but still its a great wierdfolk trip...
anthill noise anyone? upcomin summer madness!!
Quote from: Salamanauhat on November 17, 2013, 04:04:49 PM
The sound of crickets slowed down to 'human speed'. The speed determined by matching the average life-span of a cricket to that of a human. Quite amazing things in there.
https://soundcloud.com/acornavi/robert-wilson-crickets-audio (https://soundcloud.com/acornavi/robert-wilson-crickets-audio)
Got this link from friend. Was very impressed. Thought about linking it here, but it was already here. For fans of locusts & choral music - recommended.
Christian Nicolay's mic'd house fly with a clip and a pickup:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGOzVfgjNK0
took me a while but i found what i meant a while a go: michael prime "fructification" !! not insect music but kinda related, and by listening to the bzzzzz hrrrrrrrr scapes one can easily say it's in the same field.. like so:
http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Prime-Fructification/release/582796
While visiting my parents' summer cottage in Lapland I cought a bee in the glass bottle and inserted a small microphone there. Some interesting results when the bee walked on the mic capsule. When listened through headphones, it sounds like something is scraping your eardrums. Anybody who has visited Lapland in summer knows the most annoying aspect of Laplandish summer: mosquitoes. They are usually quite silent but they have this habit of coming very close to your ears so you can hear that high squeling sound. I put some binaurals in my ears and recorded the whole mess. It gave me some hard time being immobile for the whole two or three minutes while being bitten all over. I haven't used those recordings anywhere... so far.
While visiting Asia the most audible thing beyond chaotic urban noise is/are the cascades and crickets which can be LOUD! Just as you hear in the "Brokenhearted dragonflies" -cd. I have used them in couple of tracks, like "Shizen no uta" (http://ikuinen-kaamos.blogspot.fi/2008/09/kahden-kulttuurin-ni.html) and "Field recording from Thailand" ...unaltered recording from our hotel room balcony early in the morning (https://archive.org/details/SalakapakkaSoundSystem-LaMusiqueConcrtePart2). There are usually very loud frogs too.