Explanation of AOR Projects & Recordings
Archive Of Resonance captures the sounds of real experiences. These are not sound effects, nor are these composite sound-scapes assembled from a collection of recordings — when you hear an AOR recording, you are hearing something that happened, exactly as it happened.
Intent of AOR Projects
- To make albums & clips of experiential recordings — if you hear it then it happened.
- To produce audio with minimal necessary post-recording adjustments or edits.
- To record & release one new album every six months.
Team AOR
- Don – Audio Production, Project Manager, and AOR Founder
- Adam – Photographer & Graphic Art
- Donna – WebMistress
AOR Origins ~ The Not-So-Secret Back-Story
Late in 2011 my brilliant friend & fellow Celtic musician, Andrew, needed a unique sound to put on a soundtrack he had been working on. He thought to take his two Celtic harps, coupled with my portable recording gear, and stand them in the wind.
We found a day and made for the ferry terminal in Edmonds, WA. After preparing Andrew’s harps and setting up my recording gear, we began to hear lite but amazing sounds through our headphones. Additionally, we observed that apparently two guys with strange electronic gear standing on a wharf with harps over their heads looks strange to people going for walks. Fortunately, we’re both musicians and we are fairly shameless.
Finding the sound production interesting but unsatisfying, we packed everything up and hopped on the ferry with the hope of getting more wind on a moving boat. In addition to catching better wind and growing cold, we learned that ferry workers will give you weird looks while you hold harps on your shoulders on the outside deck of a ferry boat in winter, but if you’re not causing real mischief they leave you & the state patrol alone. Kids, on the other hand, don’t care — they continue running around the deck and up & down the stairs like wild animals. Some people asked what we were doing, and when possible I would offer that they take a listen through my headphones; I will never forget the fellow how heard the orchestral sounds of these harps and asked if we were ‘picking up wale calls’.
Out of all the recorded material, Andrew and I found the perfect single gusty rise & fall of wind through the strings of his harps desired for his album. As we reviewed the greater collection of recordings, I proposed that this could be turned into an album, but to do so we would have to try again to get a better recording (too many ‘wild animals’ running off energy on the metal ferry decks).
After checking with three local meteorologists for ideas of windy places without unwanted noises, a common suggestion came back of the west beach area of Whidbey Island. Opting for a bluff overlooking near-by Penn Cove, we held two more sessions, ultimately capturing the material for the AOR debut album “Wind & Harps”. Through discussion additional recording ideas began to develop. Soon we were looking at about half a dozen ideas before the first Wind & Harps CDs were even made — Andrew and I are just creative like that.
Just before recording the 2012 Oyster Run motorcycle rally, having more ambition, Andrew released the project to me around early Autumn 2012. It is my intent to continue the AOR project as Andrew and I envisioned it — making experiential recordings (a term I coined) of interesting real sounds, and releasing one new album every six months. Soon after recording The Oyster Run, I made my first attempt at capturing “Trains & Waves”. I’ve found that making AOR recordings are only limited by my imagination and observation, and that each session is its own adventure — join me, because I’m not looking back!
All the Best, Don
07October2012
