Our second release for March 2023 features a new entry in the Ecogothic/Ecoacoustic series, built around a field recording by guest contributor Lisa Brackenridge.
The first piece takes us on an eerie, time-stretched walk through a city park during an October 2022 augmented reality event. Brackenridge writes: “This track works with sounds recorded at a placemaking event in Kitchener, Ontario called Enchanted Forest: a one-kilometer trail loop illuminated with light displays, art, and sound effects. I imagine the creators of the installation had the goal of augmenting the landscape to make it somewhat magical. However, “enchanted” can also mean being bewitched; and although bird sounds are common in that space, hearing prerecorded birdsong at night was uncanny. By slowing down the sound by only thirty per cent, I was able to further augment the perception of the landscape: the slowed-down sounds change the sounds of an enchanted space to that of a haunted or eerie space.”
Track 2 is a Gothic Listening remix that slows the birdsong further, and blends it with some original field recordings of tropical birds. This walk in the park was already a little bit unsettling, even before slowing it down, because of the way that natural sounds blended with prerecorded birdsong. The more it slows down, the more that uncanniness comes to the surface, like ghostly voices you can hear in the forest if you listen closely.
The Gothic Listening Project 