Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending “Radical Listening”, a workshop on field recording presented by Lawrence English. After an engaging discussion on the “agency of listening”, approaches to field recording, a rig rundown from the previous night’s performance, a brief history of field recording, and a fair dose of nerdy gear talk, the group, led by English, ventured into the wilderness of Queens, NY. English had scoped out a two locations of interest on a previous day’s outing where a chorus of starling sang from the trees, the industrial sounds of bridges clattered, and planes from nearby Laguardia Airport flew overhead. Each a discreet sound co-mingling in the sonic terrain of the Maspeth area.
Steve Ashby 