(Original draft 19Feb2016)
I am a fan of many things. Two of these are documentary films and checking out DVDs from the library – or as I like to call it “LibraryFlix”. A few days ago I flew through the closest branch of my local library system to stock up on discs; I had a long weekend planned comprised of sitting on my couch while working on my laptop (AKA right now). One of the films I picked up is titled, simply, Soundtracker.
The “Soundtracker” is both a ‘who’ and a ‘what’ – a person and what they do. More specifically, The Soundtracker is a Washington State man by the name of Gordon Hempton, and he records sounds as they happen in nature that captures his imagination. With decades of experience with this endeavour, Mr. Hempton has become an Emmy Award-winning recorder of sounds and occurrences.
I identified with much of what I saw (or perhaps I should say ‘heard’) in watching this documentary – both with how Mr. Hempton hears things and has interest in recording them along with the joys and frustrations found in making these recordings. (To this end, I have specific points which I have listed below.)
So here’s the wrap-up and take-away, dear reader … If you want to see what going out and recording is like, watch this documentary. If you want to get a view into the life and work of an Emmy Award-winning audio recording artist, watch this documentary. If you want to see and hear how it is that people like Mr. Hempton and myself are inspired, watch this documentary.
Personally … I want a copy of this documentary and I’ve found where I can buy it online. Wait a minute … I think I exchanged a few emailed with Mr. Hempton a few months back. Okay, gotta scoot – there are half a dozen hummingbirds at a bird feeder and I want to record them. That said …
Stop, get Quiet, Observe –
Don
Links
- SOUNDTRACKER Gordon Hempton’s website
- SOUNDTRACKER The Movie
- One Square Inch of Silence at Wikipedia
- Get your own copy of this documentary
Similarities
- Like me, Gordon Hempton previously lived in Seattle. While he liked sounds in the city, he found that what he most liked and wanted to capture was nature sounds.
- 14 minutes into the documentary Mr. Hempton is seen doing a recording session. He simply wants to catch tall grass blowing in a slight breeze. As he’s trying to do this, a plane passes over him and his gear. While I like recording things as they happen, I understand this problem and frustration. For Mr. Hempton it occurs over and over again through the documentary – which is part of the point of the documentary — that there are few places people can go totally free of machine noises. Personally, while I like capturing an experience, there are things I want not in my recording — for example, if I’ve set up on a beach between the shoreline and nearby train tracks (as with one of my projects), I want to record waves and trains … not the leaf-blower operated by the grounds-keeper of a near-by high-rent house. Yeah, this happens, I understand that, and there is no control over it — but it blows all the effort behind the recording session and it comes to seem that there is little to no auditory peace.
- Generally speaking, I identify with much of what I saw – and heard – in this documentary – about hearing things, wanting to record certain things and wanting to record them without certain things, getting and being quiet, experiencing what is around you, the excitement (as in this documentary when he gets the train, horn, and bird) when you capture what you imagined in your mind’s ear, recording things only as they were and not combining sounds to achieve a certain sound.
