Field recording is the act of taking recording equipment out of the studio to capture soundscapes, specific objects, events, or locations that cannot otherwise be brought into the recording studio.
Traditional Approaches to Field Recording
Field recording may be a capture of the soundscape of a particular location at a particular time. The above image shows the capture of Central Park in New York City by a microphone designed to capture sound in all directions.
Likewise, field recordings may work to capture individual elements in nature, such as bird songs or the sound of individual objects. Unlike soundscapes where the goal is to capture all of the sonic events interacting and in relation to each other, these field recordings are concerned with getting “clean” recordings of individual sources, and aim to minimize the capture of competing sources.
Let’s first gain an understanding of the history of this practice by reading Maria Chavez & Kristina Warren’s short article on it’s history:
A Sound Artist’s Breakdown of Field Recording over History
Optional reading, Article by Maria Chavez and Kristina Warren [Chavez, Maria & Warren, Kristina. A Sound Artist’s Breakdown of Field Recording Over History. 2022.]
OPTIONAL Resources Below
The following work, “La Selva”, is from musician and sound artist Francisco López. It explores the rich composition that can emerge through soundscape-style artworks. Please read the following article by López on this work and then listen to it (I encourage you to listen to the entire work, but you are welcome to skip around and instead only experience portions of the 1+ hour long work).
Interesting Sound Artists in Field Recording
Please also read the following article (and listen to examples) exploring 10 field recording based sound artists.
10 of the Most Interesting Field Recordists Working Across Aesthetic Boundaries – Soundfly
Field-recording artists working at the edge of soundscape art;