Taleamor Park Residency

 

This film features sounds and footage of audio installations and live performances created during a month-long residency at Taleamor Park in La Porte, Indiana.

March, 2021

Music and footage by Patrick Glennon and Chrystine Rayburn

Immense thanks to Clifford Peterson and Lisa Lee Peterson for sharing their beautiful and inspiring space. Thank you to the Unity Foundation of La Porte County.

 

Film guide:

Intro

1:25 Installation for Windbreak

3:35 Performance I

5:45 Installation for Chickadee, Clarinet, and Guitar

7:48 Performance II

10:12 Installation for Small Barn

14:01 Performance III

Taleamor Park sounds: birds (chickadee, blue jay, red-winged blackbird, crow, geese), coyotes, pine tree, wind, snowfall, sewing machine, grain hauler, trains (tracks, engine, horn), workshop vacuum, buzz saw, rake/rocks.

Musical instrumentation: clarinet, guitar (classical, baritone electric), synthesizer (analogue, digital), sampler

Taleamor Park Community Sound Page

Sound and Photo Journal

Week One

Our first week was exploratory as we acclimated to the winter weather, settled into the 170-year-old farmhouse, hiked the snowy paths of the farm, and recorded interior and exterior spaces using binaural mics and our phones. With temperatures hovering between 10 and 20 degrees and lots of snow, many field recordings captured spatial dimension and distortions of sound - both environmental (birds, creaking trees, wind) and human (traffic, planes, farm machinery) - traveling through cold temperatures and dense precipitation. We isolated specific sounds within field recordings and used them as building blocks for clarinet and synthesizer composition and improvisation. We also tested an outdoor mobile speaker installation.

These two pieces are raw recordings taken right off the porch - composition emerges naturally as passing train, birds, and wind chimes converse:

Sound sketches with synthesizer and clarinet emphasize naturally occurring harmonics and pitches in raw field recordings:

This test installation aimed to weave F# minor guitar drones cycling from four mobile speakers with sounds of traffic, overhead planes, and wind - heightening human-made sounds in the snow-covered field.

Week 2

We continued making interior and exterior field recording while extending musical sketches into longer, more composed pieces. We created a synthesizer and guitar piece from creaking trees and a synthesizer piece built from a distant train horn. We also developed an installation in the windbreak that manipulated pine tree creaks, wind, and clarinet drones.

This installation features field recordings of trees creaking, wind (mixed to highlight pitches), and clarinet long tones; installation is made up of 7 different channels (mobile speakers) emitting sounds. The recording is a live take of the installation set up in the windbreak - two Zoom mics set up to capture omni-directional sound. Black and white boxes indicate speaker position among trees.

We hiked to the South Woods and Pond and saw numerous deer nesting areas and tracks throughout the fields. We took videos, photos, and sound recordings of the area near the train tracks trying to capture movement of a clear, windy day. Luckily, we caught an entire field recording of a passing train. At night, a pack of coyotes yelped for a while from the same field we had been; we assumed they caught a deer.

 Week 3

During week three the days became warmer and enabled work to get done around the farm. Work included helping Clifford clear debris out of one of the barns and tidying up a space used for woodwork. These sounds of labor animated the acoustics of the barn, which Patrick captured underneath the floorboards where he was gathering detritus to lift out. This experience turned into a mobile speaker installation inspired by the sounds of human labor and industry that have occurred at Taleamor Park for generations. We pitched synthesizer and guitar drones to harmonize with the corn hauler recorded during week one, integrating the sound of an antique sewing machine stored in the farmhouse and the sounds of Patrick raking and hauling rocks from underneath the barn to create rhythmic textures. Positioned around the barn, the mobile speakers communicated the changeless peace of Taleamor’s landscape as well as the noisy realities of human endeavor. 

Patrick created a drum machine by sampling a field recording clearing debris from under the barn. The intro and outro segments are unedited snippets of the raw field recording. All of the percussive sounds in between are derived exclusively from the field recording.

 Week 4

During week four we focused on rehearsing several instrumental pieces written using sounds pulled from the Taleamor landscape that will feature in a final video project. We continued to collect footage and stitch images together to accompany the music. We also spent time constructing an outline for a workshop about sound and memory. The thaw revealed portions of the farm that had been inaccessible, including the north pond and a disused swing set. We continued collecting bird sounds, capturing those from a blue jay and a red-winged blackbird.

These recordings were made inside of an empty grain bin. The immense hollow structure resulted in unpredictable and resonant sounds. "Empty Grain Bin" captures the natural music of the space, as outside forces (wind, swinging trees, and birds) activated the empty space with no human influence. "Grain Bin" documents an installation installed inside of the grain bin built from guitar drones. The rich harmonics of the guitar ricochet throughout the space, creating unique and irreplicable melodies and textures.