Re: [microsound] Westerkamp (was: electronic improv)

[Dale Lloyd <dkl37@xxxxxxxx>]

I agree in some respects about the babbling (brooks and just plain
babbling), but one thing that I've come to terms with is that if I want
to listen to field pieces without the babbling, I just listen to
something else. It's as simple as that. I think we get disappointed with
an artist because we build expectations before listening to a work we
haven't heard before. When we listen without expections we tend to take a
piece on it's own terms and not our own.

On Thu, 14 Sep 2000 20:15:54 EDT "virginia maryland"
<hotlinegrrl@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> ....
> >Anyone experienced any of the 'soundwalk' recordings of artists 
> such as
> >Hildegaard Westerkamp.
> ......
> 
> 
> I have to say that Hildegard Westerkamp was one of those artists I 
> really 
> got excited about initially, but eventually I found everything she 
> did 
> really disappointing.
> 
> The first hint that something was wrong was a kind of low level new 
> age 
> content (her forest pieces in particular tend to go down this deadly 
> road... 
> too many babbling brooks and chirping birds...)
> 
> 
> But my biggest complaint is that her pieces really undo themselves. 
> "Kits 
> Beach Soundwalk", is particularly frustrating in this respect... for 
> as much 
> as it's about all the miniscule sounds of the beach, the thing you 
> hear the 
> most is Hildegard Westerkamp talking.... she talks far too much in 
> her 
> pieces, it's really distracting and it just seems to defeat the 
> whole stated 
> purpose of 'soundwalking'.
> 
> 
> So once again we see that theory and practice are too far apart, 
> which is 
> probably the source of most of my music related complaints.


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