Recording 'Red Gold'
Recording 'Red Gold'
The river environment has become its own instrument, just as I hoped it would.
The song of the cicadas moved like a Mexican wave through the forest, according to Courtney, my fellow adventurer that day. But all I could hear in my mono sonic, small d deaf world was the volume of the cicadas rising and falling, growing to an intense all consuming sound, then fading away to reveal the other insects, bird song and running water of the creek.
Amidst the darting blue dragonflies and damselflies, the Quondong tree (Elaeocarpis grandis) raining blue fruit into the creek, I set up a small recording rig on a rock in a secluded part of Little Nerang Creek, under elusive blue skies (I was keenly aware that rain could derail my plans).
I was set to record my first completed song for this Nerang River project.
I also had my Tascam stereo microphones recording, but for some reason these mics recorded regular, invasive digital pops which rendered the natural stereo field in the recording useless (editing them out, later proved more trouble than it was worth).
So I had to embrace the mono field with this recording. You will hear the cicadas (Psaltoda plaga) volume rising and falling just like I do with my deaf right ear, especially towards the end of the track. You will also hear the babbling creek through the ribbon mic I had on my guitar (not so much on the SM57 I had on my voice). I did salvage some of the stereo Tascam field recordings which I arranged in the mix as fade in and outs and which helped glue some crossfades. I also included a little of the hydrophone recordings I made submerged in the creek itself.
The song, Red Gold is a reflection on the white folk who built the first commercial industry on the Gold Coast, cutting and transporting Ceder trees (Toona ciliata) down the Nerang River. The protagonist could well be the most famous Ceder timberman, Ned Harper. Or not. Or it could be a manifestation of myself. I can’t be too sure at the moment.
I hope you like this first mix, the song has turned out totally different to how I heard it in my head, and that was driven by the in situ recording process.
The river environment has become its own instrument, just as I hoped it would.
I will re-look at this song down the track. I really don’t have my mixing hat on right now.
I will keep updating you with writings, sounds and songs of the Nerang as I continue to explore the history, stories and flow of Gold Coast’s largest water catchment.
Thanks again to HOTA, Home of the Arts for believing in me and this project and to Wesley Enoch for pushing me to look for new and effective ways to document and share my creative process
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