Audio scrapbooking

I have long been fascinated with electro-acoustic music, both as a listener and creator. Now, I am exploring this as part of documenting various aspects of our lives with my girlfriend (who is a bassoonist and metalsmith).

We have dubbed this open-ended project audio scrapbooking.

The creative process behind this begins with using various sound recording devices (at the moment, the Voice Memos app on my iPhone for off-the-cuff recordings, and an M-Audio MicroTrack II for places where we need higher quality and/or stereo recording), which we use to document the sounds that permeate our time together and apart. Some of the sounds are of the mundane (just setting up a recorder in the corner to capture whatever is going on), and sometimes we record specific events or sounds we want to capture.

The sounds are then processed and assembled into pieces we can listen to in order to relive the events, use as background sound, or listen actively in the case of pieces that are structured more like musical pieces.

Sounds are still being assembled (this will be an ongoing process, of course), and while some of the sounds may be used on pieces that are released commercially, much of this music will be distributed privately among close friends and family.