Myalup Wind

Whilst Cam was in Western Austalia to play the Two Lakes launch show in Fremantle we spent an evening recording around my home at Myalup Beach. Myalup Beach is hit with onshore south westerly winds straight off the Indian Ocean for most of the year. In the summer months, the south westerly brings a welcome respite from the heat, cooling down the land mass in the afternoons. In the winter months, the prevailing wind heralds cold fronts from deep in the southern Indian ocean. These systems bring rain, storms and tidal surges.

As a result of the prevailing south westerly, the dunes on Myalup beach are heavily eroded. Myalup is a popular summer holiday spot where people drive 4WD vehicles onto the beach and located nearby is Western Australia's second water desalination plant. These pressures are also adding to beach erosion. Local government and community groups are trying to prevent the damage by fencing off the dunes and preventing access to the most eroded areas. The photo above shows a section of the run down fence.

This recording was taken inside a plastic pylon used to delineate the swimming section of the beach. The pylon acted as a wind shelter and helped prevent the bass frequencies from overloading the microphone as is the case in most wind recordings.

- Matt




Myalup Wind blogmix by Matt Rösner

Waves in Caves

I (cam) had the great pleasure to meet sound artist (and fellow 12k kid) Stephen Vitiello on his recent visit to Sydney as part of the amazing Sound of Red Earth project (Kaldor Public Art Project). Stephen has kindly included one of our pieces recorded as part of the Two Lakes sessions in his recent podcast for Symiosis. This recording, titled Waves in Cave, was recorded on one of the rock shelves adjacent to Merro Lake. There were a few large overhanging sandstone outcrops along the shore, a couple with gutters in the rockshelf allowing waves to wash up over the rock. A series of recordings were done using a shotgun mic, facing into one of these "caves" to record the echo and bounce of the crashing waves sound.

Listen to Stephen Vitiello's Symbiosis podcast.

Symbiosis 69 - Seaworthy & Matt Rosner

The wonderful Symbiosis has just posted their latest podcast featuring Seaworthy and Matt Rosner.
Much credit goes to Matt for putting this mix together as he describes the material contained within " This mix for Symbiosis is made up of a live set recorded last year at Sydney’s Serial Space. The recording documents the first time we had collaborated. The take is completely improvised with no rehearsal beforehand, it was just a case of arrive at the venue and play. At the end of the live set, the mix features a short re-working of material from the Two Lakes sessions. Processed ebowed guitar recorded are set against a recording taken in a dense area of sedges surrounding Lake Meroo."

Listen at Symbiosis

Perth "Two Lakes" Launch

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 7 2010

Seaworthy + Matt Rösner (Album Launch)
Adam Trainer

Fremantle Arts Centre
1 Finnerty St
Fremantle

Doors Open at 6pm

$15 entry

Fremantle Arts Centre

Rocks

There are some amazing rock formations along the coast around Meroo National Park where the recordings for Two Lakes took place. Some of the most interesting were the piles of rocks on top of and adjacent to the rock platforms. A large jumble of misshapen rocks and boulders that have no doubt been rearranged time and time again by the strong southerly storm swells that so often march up, and pound into, the coast within this region.

Bushfire Trail

Parts of the national park surrounding the Meroo and Termeil lake systems were badly burnt following a wildlife the previous summer. Throughout the part, some of the firetrails had been closed and signs in place warned for falling branches. The blackened trunks were in stark difference to the bright green new growth, both of leaves and grass below. During our visit there were some strong winds whipping through the forest creating some amazing sounds. In the distance, I'm sure we could hear the sounds of snapping and falling branches.
Bushfire track by seaworthy

sand and sky

A small number of shots taken on the beach dividing the lake and ocean. An interesting place to record as we were trying to avoid some of the obvious sounds of crashing waves and the like. We tried for some interesting sounds by allowing the hydrophone to wash around in the small waves that rushed up the step sloped beach, being covered and uncovered with sand in the process. Unfortunately, the results weren't spectacular by any means and few, if any, actually made it to the final album. We'll try to get some up on the environmental sounds blog in the coming weeks.