Monday, November 15, 2010

Myalup Wind



Whilst Cam was in Western Austalia to play the Two Lakes launch show in Fremantle we spent an evening recording around my home at Myalup Beach. Myalup Beach is hit with onshore south westerly winds straight off the Indian Ocean for most of the year. In the summer months, the south westerly brings a welcome respite from the heat, cooling down the land mass in the afternoons. In the winter months, the prevailing wind heralds cold fronts from deep in the southern Indian ocean. These systems bring rain, storms and tidal surges.

As a result of the prevailing south westerly, the dunes on Myalup beach are heavily eroded. Myalup is a popular summer holiday spot where people drive 4WD vehicles onto the beach and located nearby is Western Australia's second water desalination plant. These pressures are also adding to beach erosion. Local government and community groups are trying to prevent the damage by fencing off the dunes and preventing access to the most eroded areas. The photo above shows a section of the run down fence.

This recording was taken inside a plastic pylon used to delineate the swimming section of the beach. The pylon acted as a wind shelter and helped prevent the bass frequencies from overloading the microphone as is the case in most wind recordings.

- Matt




Myalup Wind blogmix by Matt Rösner

Friday, November 12, 2010

Waves in Caves





I (cam) had the great pleasure to meet sound artist (and fellow 12k kid) Stephen Vitiello on his recent visit to Sydney as part of the amazing Sound of Red Earth project (Kaldor Public Art Project). Stephen has kindly included one of our pieces recorded as part of the Two Lakes sessions in his recent podcast for Symiosis. This recording, titled Waves in Cave, was recorded on one of the rock shelves adjacent to Merro Lake. There were a few large overhanging sandstone outcrops along the shore, a couple with gutters in the rockshelf allowing waves to wash up over the rock. A series of recordings were done using a shotgun mic, facing into one of these "caves" to record the echo and bounce of the crashing waves sound.

Listen to Stephen Vitiello's Symbiosis podcast.