Myalup Dunes after sunset

Myalup Dunes After Sunset  

The recording below was made in the dunes near my house just after sunset. Sitting in the dunes is an interesting listening experience as the sound of the ocean reverberates around the surfaces of the steep sand faces and down into the valleys between them. Depending on the time of day, the sea breeze can also produce an interesting resonance. There was no wind when this recording was taken so it just the crickets and waves off in the distance.

new Seaworthy album: Bellows and Breath

The Preservation label presents Bellows and Breath, the fourth album from Sydney’s Seaworthy.

Seaworthy is the musical guise of Cameron Webb, who for the best part of a decade has developed singular soundscapes scored with guitar-driven ambience, field recording and digital processing. In recent years, Webb has recorded to acclaim for the esteemed 12K label, releasing the 1897 album in 2009 followed by a collaboration with Matt Rosner, Two Lakes.

His compositions reflect his deep connection to environment and nature; each piece often feels like a journey through beautiful, untethered terrain. For Bellows and Breath, Webb has explored a different terrain of his own, paring back his trademark guitar to build a work based largely around harmonium, melodica and found sounds. By way of its title, Bellows and Breath is a new side to Webb’s sonic meditations on movement, air and its interaction with the environment.

The pure rhythmic hiss and crackle of the harmonium’s bellows proved the inspiration for the way Webb played the harmonium itself, becoming an unforced undertow to a set of bowing chords that invoke an open spirit in their composition and measure. Spare and fluid acoustic guitar intermittently reflects off these surfaces, also layered by combinations of melodica, incidental rushes of wind through grass and distant sounds of birds, insects and more. This may be Webb once again in sentiment with nature, however Bellows and Breath represents a bold new step in his special and personal trajectory.

Released on CD in April 2012. Limited to 300 copies.

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Kooragang Island Frogs

This recording was made at night alongside a freshwater pond on Kooragang Island near Newcastle, NSW. Kooragang Island is a unique location because it was once an extensive estuarine wetland dominated by mangroves and saltmarsh. However, much of the land was reclaimed for agriculture and a network of roads and pathways were constructed across the site. As a result, a series of swales were created that, despite being amongst estuarine environments, retain mostly freshwater habitats. These habitats are highly dependent on seasonal rainfall but they provide locally important breeding habitats for threatened species such as teh Green and Golden Bell Frog. In this recording, you can hear two dominant species, Litoria peronii and Litoria fallax. These two "tree frog" species are relatively common in the local area.

Abandoned Drains

Over the past decade, Hexham Swamp on the NSW coast new Newcastle has been the subject of one of the largest wetland rehabilitation projects in the southern hemisphere. Part of the project has been the reintroduction of tidal flows to the wetland and as part of that process, an old pipelines that once acted as drains have been decomissioned. The old pipes had been discarded onsite and these recordings were made on an extremely windy day from a shaltered space inside the pipes.

Abandoned Drains by seaworthy

Two Lakes & 12k December Sale

Seaworthy and Matt Rosner's 2010 collaboration "Two Lakes" met with great critical aclaim on its release and we're happy to let you all known that during the month of December, you can pick it up for a bargain price during 12k's annual December sale. Alongside our CD, you can also grab a few other great releases from 12k includingreleases from Ken Kirschner, Fourcolor, Stephan Mathieu (highly recommended!), Moss and Murralin Lane. Full details of the sale , as well as sound samples, are available on the 12k website.

Blue Mountains Botanic Garden

Approximately 90min drive from Sydney's CBD, The Blue Mountain Botanic Gardens are located at Mt Tomah. This beautiful region of the Blue Mountains is the perfect location for the Botanic Gardens. Just one part of the gardens is known as "The Jungle". For some history on this area of the gardens:

"The Jungle was originally purchased in 1929 by a group of Sydney businessmen to save the magnificent sassafras and coachwood trees from the timber mill while providing Sydney with a national park to its west. It was opened by the then Governor Admiral Sir Dudley DeChair on 23 March 1929 and the original walk was dedicated to the memory of Sir James Fairfax KBE. However, the Jungle never achieved its destiny as a national park as the Great Depression, coupled with pressure for building funds for the Sydney Harbour Bridge, led in 1934 to the land being resumed by the previous owners, the Charley family.
In 2008, 33 hectares of the original Jungle was purchased by the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, with the financial support of John and Elizabeth Fairfax and the NSW Government's Environmental Trust. Now part of the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah, the Jungle is again in public hands giving Sydneysiders an opportunity to experience and understand Blue Mountains' rainforest."

These recordings were made late in the afternoon on 21 November. While within the rainforest habitats you seem completely isolated, the invasive sound of traffic continues to invade these recordings. However, the diversity of bird calls here more than makes up for it. It would be nice to visit first thing in the morning to make some more recordings.

For more information on the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens visit their website.

Blue Mountains Botanic Garden by seaworthy

Singing Floodlights

This recording was made with contact mics on floodlight towers at Campbell Park, Russell Lea, NSW, Australia. The towers are relatively narrow and at over 30m high with their large banks of floodlights tend to sway a little once the wind picks up. These recordings were made during a period of particularly strong winds, a common occurance in Sydney during September/October each year. The sounds in these recordings are primarily made from the movement of internal wires/cables as the huge structures sway in the wind. During these recordings, the movement in the lights above was quite dramatic.

Singing Floodlights by seaworthy