Happy tenth anniversary to Poland’s Saamleng label, home to a remarkable run of 71 pure field recording releases. While the majority of the albums come from Tomek Mirt and Magda Ter (read our 2022 interview with Mirt here), the label has also hosted over a dozen other artists over its tenure. This season, the Spring Bundle offers a variety of sources, from mangrove to port to temple, a virtual cornucopia of sound.
Mirt & Ter have been to the island of Tarutao before, but have never captured the sounds of the mangrove forest before now. An incredible hundred hours of recordings were distilled to only one, akin to Joshua Bonnetta’s The Pines. Sea and land, tide and swamp all come into play, along with the cries of local wildlife and occasionally intrusive boats. The soundscape is peaceful and primarily quiet, to the extent that every soft noise attracts the attention: a solo bird, a sudden crackle, the emergence of crickets. In the second excerpt, a creature that we know isn’t a dog sounds like a dog, emphasizing the tricks the mind can play on the ear. The water bubbles and flows; on New Year’s Day, the birds seem to have the biophony all to themselves, a particularly long cry at the end of “Excerpt IV” particularly intriguing. As these artists were not present during the recording, they had the joy of poring over the tapes to locate sonic events; the small miracle is that the album is presented as a continuous piece, an hour of days.
E. Jason Gibbs, who last appeared here with fish point, returns with Working Waterfront, which is both a spiritual successor to the former album and a fine counterpart to éric la casa’s Zones Portuaires 2. Combining recordings from Portland, Maine and Lisbon, Portugal, Gibbs constructs a study of active ports, a topic which remains in the public’s eye due to tariffs and blockades. Fortunately, these ports are more peaceful, although they are no no means quiet; bustling with activity, they burst with sound both natural and human-made. Portland’s international terminal Ocean Gateway introduces a wide variety of watery sounds, especially crisp in the mid-section, unfolding in the midst of commerce. A second Portland location is voiced on “Dredging Barge on a Rising Tide,” documenting activity in Casco Bay; the birds squawk and squeal over the interruption to their daily activities. In “The New Town Dock,” Gibbs celebrates “a fabulously noisy thing,” and wow is he correct, although no one in their right mind would want to live next to it; the creaks and moans are obnoxiously grating, albeit sonically valuable (in this short dose). For comparison, Gibbs also includes “Doca da Marinha,” capturing a dockside morning in Lisbon; without the title, one would never know the dock was on the other side of the world.
For years, Mirt & Ter have been releasing a series of Temple Soundscapes, sixteen to date; Series 01: Phra Maha Chedi Tripob Trimongkol is the first to be offered in physical format. Thailand’s “Stainless Pagoda … is made of chrome tubes and decorated with thousands of small bells.” Nearly a decade of recordings are included here, spanning the years 2018-26, providing a sense of timelessness. While listening, one yearns for the multi-dimensional effect of hearing the chimes in person. The chimes sound through wind and light rain, during conversations and gatherings, enhancing meditation both formal and informal. In the fourth part (February 2025), clanging offsets the chiming, the harsh against the subtle; yet the children do not seem to mind; in fact, they may be doing the clanging as a choir sings in the background. The sounds are loudest in January of this year, a wind-filled recording that highlights the contrast between timbres. As the human element evaporates, one wonder if one is hearing the breath of a higher being, drawn to the temple by its unique combination of sounds. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 