blog.Crónica

During a long stay in Lisbon, Portugal, Bristol sound artist Simon Whetham and now based in Colombia records the city ambiance and its outskirts. He captures the geography and architecture of the city of Lisbon, its people, weather and his emotional state. For this Whetham used different types of microphones like Sennheiser shotgun microphone and two lavalier microphones, contact microphones and contact microphones and hydrophones to expose sound vibrations that travel through objects, an electromagentic coil pickup and a radio receiver, an electromagnetic wire from a turntable and a radio receiver.

After leaving these recordings without listening and intervene in a while and being in a strong emotional state, Simon works these sounds with great intention and strength to release the emotions.

The sound its a bit dark, remote, along with metal objects, the sounds are both abrasive and harmonics. A soundscape that evokes both urban sounds and of the countryside.

Listening to this album I have mixed emotions, on the one hand I think I have trouble with those dense and impenetrable drones and on the other side joy and hope; because of the harmonic lines and birdsongs. Guillermo Escudero

via Loop

In 2010 the volcano Eyjafjallajokull erupted and made air traffic impossible for some time in Europe. Simon Whetham was in Portugal and has to extend his stay. He decided to capture the sounds of the city, using a Sennheiser shotgun microphone, two Tram lavalier mics, contact microphones and hydrophones, and later on composed pieces of music that are now released by, how appropriate, a label from Portugal (though not Lisbon). The title of the CD reflects the lonely state the field recordist does his work with, but it’s not to seen in a negative way. This is a long album, close to 80 minutes and that is a bit much, considering the careful nature of the music, I think. Whetham does a fine job capturing sounds from the city and melting them together into seven pieces of music. Whetham knows how to create sustaining sounds from those city sounds and waves in between, down there and on top smaller blocks of sound, crackles, someone walking a tunnel and that sort of thing in single play mode or in loop form and makes some beautiful collage of sounds. Whetham has a particular interest in the world of ambient music, rather than just pure field recordings or heavy computer processing. This makes his music very delicate and spacious even at times. It’s long, but it’s great. I almost track of time when I was playing this, dreaming away. Maybe of a sunny city as opposed to a grey day in February. Very delicate, very refined indeed. Maybe the best thing I heard from him so far. (FdW)

via Vital Weekly

Einen durch den Ausbruch eines isländischen Vulkans und die damit verbundene Stilllegung europäischer Flughäfen bedingten Zwangsaufenthalt in Lissabon nutzte der Klangkünstler Simon Whetham für ausgiebige Feldaufnahmen. Urbanes iberisches Treiben hat er dabei außer Acht gelassen, sein Interesse galt eher normalerweise unhörbaren Vibrationen und Unterwasserklängen, die er mit Kontaktmikrofon, Hydrophon und Tonabnehmer aufzeichnete. Dadurch ergeben sich “klassische“ Fieldrecording-Arrangements genauso wie fast keyboardartige Drones, die Whetham zu melancholischen und spannend arrangierten Hörstücken voller Naturgeräusche von Wind und Wasser sowie menschengemachten mechanischen Klänge verarbeitet. asb

Album de musique électroacoustique très délicate, sur fond d’enregistrements de terrain souvent ténus. Certaines ambiances sont bien réussies, et la recherche sonore de Whetham pousse l’oreille à chercher de nouveaux types de liens entre les sons, mais à 77 minutes, Never So Alone pèche par excès. François Couture

via Monsieur Délire