Metaphonics. The Field Works Listener's Guide

by Stuart Hyatt, Janneane Blevins (Editor), Benjamin Blevins (Editor)

‘What we really want is something worth listening to. There is still some beauty to be heard. And Stuart Hyatt, through his fine insights and talent, compels us to do just that.’ – Bernie Krause, author of The Great Animal Orchestra. For Stuart Hyatt, the world itself is a recording studio where people, places, and things become the instruments. Hyatt has spent the last four years collecting these sounds and arranging them into uniquely site-responsive music. Working collaboratively under the name Field Works, musicians from around the world have contributed over 50 new compositions to this massive collection. In Metaphonics Hyatt contributes a complete track-by-track guide to the7-album Field Works box set, addressing from many angles the interpretation of place through sound. Renowned naturalist Bernie Krause writes the book’s foreword, establishing a taxonomy of the soundscapes explored in the book’s geophony (earth sounds), biophony (animal sounds), anthropophony (human sounds) and cosmophony (sounds from outer space). Metaphonics is released in partnership with Brooklyn-based record label Temporary Residence and includes an audio download card of the entire Field Works collection, featuring never-before-heard music from Juana Molina, The Field, Lali Puna, Pantha du Prince, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Eluvium, Dan Deacon, Matmos, Dntel, Gazelle Twin, Visible Cloaks, The Album Leaf, Loscil, Paul De Jong, Mary Lattimore, Lusine, B Fleischmann, William Tyler, Nick Zammuto, Rafiq Bhatia, Lullatone, Benoit Pioulard, Luke Abbott, Marcus Fischer, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Julien Marchal and many others. Contributions from Cheryl Tipp, Leah Barclay, Gustavo Valdivia, Enrique Ramirez, Yiorgis Sakellariou, Sarah Laskow, Stuart Fowkes, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Manuja Waldia, and Peter Liversidge.

265 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2018

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book design. Wonderful to hold and looks amazing in a collection. I have to say though I was a little bit disappointed on a couple of levels. Firstly, the quality of the essays was nothing to write home about. There is much more interesting scholarly research out there and some from 10-15 years prior to when this was published that has deeper insights into field recording and some of its many intersections.

Secondly, the audio download card was expired so I had to find a way to get the audio. Luckily there was a website but it only offered MP3 downloads. I'm not sure if that was always the case but field recording artists are notorious for caring about the quality of what they release. It was kind of disappointing this didn't come in a higher resolution format but maybe there is a limitation on file sizes with the download service the publisher used.

Lastly, and this is just personal, the recordings were not really to my taste of field recording music. They were more "pop" oriented, 4/4 tracks that included field recording materials and interviews, so many interviews. Besides the last album, "Initial Sounds," there wasn't much to differentiate the other 5 as they used many of the same compositional techniques over and over. With the title of the book including the word "guide," I definitely expected more variety.

Overall, good for a member of the public who is interested in field recording and its uses/applications, but if you are already deep into the field recording world and are well read on the subject, this probably won't offer much new for you.

[Yanna Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is awesome