Sunday afternoon on February 8, 2009 it was fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit in Manhattan, so we took a stroll through Soho en route to brunch with our gracious hosts Ray and his lovely wife Nicole. Street vendors were out in full force selling paintings, photographs, rugs, pottery, and all sorts of other sundries. Here’s thirty-four seconds of our walk illustrating a variety of activities going on in the area.
Soho Ambiance
Here’s a nice one minute and twelve seconds long segment with very little talking from an eight minute recording inside a New York City taxi cab. I was in the taxi with my friends Simone Giuliani and Benjamin Montag on the way to Nublu from Simone’s studio where we had been listening to each others music and catching up after not seeing each other for over a year. You can hear rough roads, typical New York cabbie lead footed acceleration, the muffled sound of traffic outside the cab, and my quip at the end in response to Simone saying he was tired as well, “my [lack of] energy is bringing you down”.
Taxi Cab Ride to Nublu
I managed to capture most of both of the Keston and Westdal sets at Nublu last Saturday on my Sony PCM-D50. The recording is pretty chatty, but that’s about what you’d expect in a jam packed small venue like Nublu. Although the mix and quality is bad, these kind of recordings are good for gathering ideas. You never know what might come out of a late night, or rather early morning, jam session. This particular jam started sometime during our second set, shortly after three in the morning, with a loop of drums and synth bass Nils put together that Graham O’Brien (drums) and I joined in on.
After Three AM
I made this recording during a five minute walk to one of the several subway stations in the Battery Park City community of lower Manhattan, New York. On this particular Saturday afternoon traffic was light. There was a great deal of construction going on in the area, but most of it was on hold for the weekend. I think it’s a nice example of quiet, weekend afternoon, city ambiance. The recording is quite long, and although I did plan on editing it down to a shorter segment, after listening to it a few times I decided to leave it as it is, including the part in the middle where a car went by blaring early Herbie Hancock.
Battery Park
One Sound Every Day entries are likely to be a little scarce until Monday or Tuesday because I’ll be in New York for a performance at Nublu. The group playing is Keston and Westdal with Graham O’Brien on drums. We’ve been busy preparing for this and other events lately, including the Spark Festival in Minneapolis. I’m excited to be visiting New York again. This will be our fifth performance there as Keston and Westdal, and the third time at Nublu, which is a really great venue. I’m also eagerly anticipating the Spark Festival having just learned that Pole will be performing on February 21, 2009.
That said, while I’m in New York I’m planning on making some binaural recordings of environments, street musicians, musical performances, and general mayhem as I encounter it, so I expect to catch upsoon after I return. New York readers and visitors, please stop by Nublu (between 4th and 5th on Avenue C) this Saturday, February 7. We’ll be playing two sets starting at midnight. Here’s an example of what you might hear during our show.
Ostracon
by Keston and Westdal (Unearthed Music, 2008)