Places for Listening
an acoustical diary (fragments)

by
kaye mortley
production DLR, 2004
mix: stephen erickson

Here: the listeners sound reports from Barmaz read in their native language and mixed together

The Plateau of Barmaz a mountain pasture land
altitude:1,500 meters
population : between may and october, a few farmers and holiday makers; for the rest of the year, no one :

thursday, 2.30 pm
silence
Silence over the plateau
ringed around by mountains
open to the sky
silence
sometimes
total
silence
And now I am
walking
climbing
up to the silence
up to the music
sometimes
a pianissimo:
I
can
almost
hear…

I
follow the stream.
Listen:
it runs
fast / slow
soft / hard
shallow / deep
dark / light
blue / green
amber/brown
transparent
tiny drops
of sound
I
would hear
all its colours
all its shades.


And
the silence around them.
drops of
silence
43'12"
stream
delicate, flowing fast on the right
on the left, more detail (as it flows over pebbles, branches, mud, sand, , lichen…)
45'02
water harder, "thicker"
49'00"
a dragon fly brushes the microphone
51'10"
water falling from a rock ledge
into the bed of the stream)
52'13
On the right, drops
53'39
fast flowing
left, centre, right
55'49
the listener moves the microphone:
a rush of water (far off)

a hush of wind in the pine trees
The Plateau of Barmaz

friday, 11am
A place of silence.

Sound is minute …
a camellia
drops
onto the mat
dot
spot
line
thread
Here
sounds are few …
(the ear cannot hear most)
and the same.
stream
bird
insect
everywhere

....................... bells
insect
stream
bird
everywhere

....................... bells
bird
stream
insect
everywhere

....................... bells
stream
insect
bird
everywhere
one camellia falls
then another …

ah the camellias!
Here
sound
treads lightly
on silence-
barely
grazing
the surface
as it goes.


Silence
ancient
deep
mineral

Silence of stone


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PAGE 3
friday, 11am