Any composer or musician who is driven to use a compositional approach that integrates the ecological and who deals with the external world as part of their creative work is trustworthy only when writing about sounds that they have directly experienced and intimately known.
I have always gone directly to the source when recording a sonic environment. For this reason, when I combine real-world acoustic environments into the musical landscapes I compose, the authenticity of myself as being the earwitness to a specific biological community or location has been clearly established.
The author recording the sonic environment in Caitlin Forest, located the hills of Litchfield, CT.
The Activity of Recording Environmental Sounds Means Being Inside the Act of Listening
Wandering the temperate forest, I like to use the microphone the way a physician uses the stethoscope. With my microphone acting as a resonator, I search for intensified sonic worlds made by the forest, listening to sounds and vibrations in a quest to discover what the human eye alone cannot see.
I like to find a spot and position the microphone very close to the miniature, quiet and complex sounds of nature; to make them audible to the vast army of numbed human ears.
However, sharing the beauty of the natural world through recordings does come with some challenges. Weather conditions and unwanted human noise pollution are obvious examples.
Another big challenge, and unbeknownst to many, is the number of hours a recordist must willingly spend in a forest or other habitat in order to record those pristine audio artifacts. According to the soundscape ecologist and musician Bernie Krause, it can take 1,000 hours of recording to get just one hour of usable material. The audio recordist Martyn Stewart claims that one must devote more like 2,000 hours.
What’s more, one of the synchronous demands of spending numerous hours at a fixed site to record environmental sounds means that as a recordist you have to sit completely still. Those magical moments capturing sounds in any given environment can happen, but precisely because the recordist needs to remain absolutely motionless—and in silence.
Into the bargain, the activity of recording a biome teeming with life equates to more than just spending hours in a fixed place and sitting still. It also necessitates an important process of intense listening.
I refer to this activity as “soundsitting”.
The author in Sicily recording the Aleoppo oak while soundsitting.
What is Soundsitting?
Recording and listening to soundscapes have certainly enhanced my sonological competence. This includes the practice of soundsitting, which is a method of sitting meditation that exposes human ears to a specific biological community or environment. The aim is to maintain a high level of sonic awareness and sensitivity.
In essence, soundsitting allows a participant to focus on deep immersive listening in a single sonic environment context. This differs from a traditional soundwalk, where the participant is transitioning through differing soundscape contexts and temporality.
Although the traditional soundwalk is an effective way of engaging participants in qualitative research, soundsitting is an additional method which can extend the current methodological practice of the soundwalk. By eliminating the distraction of walking, soundsitting provides the participant a fixed place within a defined soundscape context. The activity of “listening in place” enables the participant to gain a fuller, more detailed and longer term experiential understanding of a sound environment.
In addition, soundsitting allows the participant to disengage the visual sense which makes room for a deeper listening to a sound environment. Close-eyed listening facilitates a different type of immersion through engaged active listening, and this is also not possible on a soundwalk. This means that soundsitting can be used as a practice in its own right, since it can provide a deep qualitative analysis and insight to the acoustic sounds of a specific sonic environment.
What’s else, even though soundwalking and soundsitting are complementary methods, one can consider the soundsitting alternative as being both inclusive and a beneficial technique. Thus, soundsitting is not only a method of qualitative research; I believe it can also provide the participant well-being benefits.
Lastly, correlative to my explorations as a composer, recording soundscapes and soundsitting have both helped me to achieve a “wakefulness” in my listening. This has had a direct influence on my musical imagination, knowledge, and how I speak with environmental sounds through my music compositions. It is this awakening that has ushered in a new and personalized balance between composing, listening and recording.
Beneath Hemlock Tabernacles is a 10' composition for violoncello quartet with pre-recorded soundscape of the eastern hemlock
What I've Learned Thus Far from Soundsitting
I have been testing the soundsitting methodology for a number of years. The practice arose as a natural extension and part of my field recording practice, and it has amplified my personal experience and listening engagement with the soundscape.
In addition, I currently use the soundsit method as part of a personal exploratory research process that aims to use nature to improve health and well-being.
Some of the benefits of soundsitting I’ve learned include:
Soundsitting can become a lifelong practice; a way to connect with the sonic environment, all that inhabits it, and all that there is.
Soundsitting can usher in deeper listening states, thus allowing the participant to explore the relationships among any and all sounds in the chosen sonic environment context. Thought is included.
To achieve deeper listening states, the participant can use the technique of closed-eye listening and disengage with visual stimuli. This allows the participant to focus their listening on details, spatiality and temporality within the chosen sonic environment context.
Whether the participant employs open eyed or close-eyed listening, soundsitting and deeper active listening can provide the participant a more detailed and profound topographical and qualitative assessment of the sonic environment.
Soundsitting allows for specific soundscape contexts to be recorded and studied, rather than transitioning through multiple environment contexts during a traditional soundwalk.
Soundsitting enables the participant to experience “belongingness” of a biological community or environment, unlike if the participant was transitioning the space on a traditional soundwalk.
Recording the soundscape while soundsitting can be compared directly with the participant experience, thereby providing deeper analysis.
Soundsitting offers inclusivity and participation for all humans, including the visually impaired and those with mobility issues or are unable to walk.
Recorded Soundscapes that Involved Soundsitting
This is a short playlist of soundscapes where the activity of recording involved soundsitting. For the best experience, I encourage you to listen using noise cancellation headphones.
Soundsitting allows for specific soundscape contexts to be recorded and studied in detail. In this example, coniferous and deciduous woods.
The author soundsitting and recording wood frongs in the late afternoon at a natural vernal pool in deciduous woods.
After climbing a white pine classified as the largest white pine tree (by volume) in New England, the author recorded the soundscape while soundsitting.
The author recording and practicing soundsitting up in the “Thoreau Tree”.