This concludes week 1 of this 52-week project, “An Album A Day.” Installment #5 is a Japanese CD-only release by one of the most respected and brilliant field recordists in the world. Whereas the previous two posts — Douglas Quin’s Fathom and the Nonesuch compilation Animals Of Africa — both featured live nature sounds such as seals, penguins, leopards and hyenas, Tsunoda operates on a completely different level. The two volumes which make up the Extract archives are filled with recordings made inside various sized spaces and are “concerned with the relation between sound space and cognition space, and often investigates stationary waves formed by fixed conditions in closed systems.” Hence, you get titles like “Tube type container,” or “Crack in the lid of a manhole.” And the sounds Tsunoda is able to capture are absolutely remarkable.
I found a copy of this CD in a cheap-o bin at Princeton Record Exchange way back in the winter of 2005. I don’t keep as precise notes about CDs as I do about vinyl because I’m constantly downsizing my collection. Unless it’s something that’s not available on LP or it’s a tour-only CD — if it has any unique quality beyond being a mass-market manufactured disc — I usually part with the vast majority of discs I come across. My CD collection can’t contain more than 100 discs at this point. And some are kept for sentimental reasons. I still have the un-mixed and un-mastered “first version” of Fading Trails that Jason Molina gave me when I interviewed him. I have all the Root Strata CD-Rs Jefre Cantu-Ledesma gave me when I interviewed him. And, you know, the Suishou No Fune tour-only discs…the Conformists’ Three-Hundred album. Things that have some importance to me. And I’ve kept Extract From Field Recording Archive #1 because it’s not available on any other format. I don’t own the Häpna released Archive #2 (which was that label’s first ever release, I think!) even though I used to see it at Other Music all the time. I guess I always thought it’d be around, and I was more concerned with buying up all the A Taste Of Ra and Tape CDs, almost all of which I’ve sold now. I’ve still got that 3/4HadBeenEliminated CD…I think. And I’ve got most of the Tape albums on vinyl now. Alas, still looking for Archive #2 if anyone knows where to find it.
Toshiya Tsunoda
Extract From Field Recording Archive #1
(WrK – WrK008cd, 1997)
01. Solid Vibration Of The Surface Of A Concreted Wharf Where A Marine Products Market Used To Be
02. Solid Vibration Of A Glass Bottle At Ship Anchorage Area
03. Air Vibration Of The Hollow Part In The Middle Of A Buoy Used For Large Ships
04. Air Vibration In A Bent Pipe
05. Solid Vibration Of A Steel Plate At A Loading Area
06. Solid Vibration Of A Support Pillar For The External Unit For A Large Size Refrigerator [MP3]
07. Solid Vibration Of An Anchor For Small Boats
08. Air Vibration Of Elevator Motor Room In Stairwell
