ISOBEL CLOUTER & ROB MULLENDER

At long last, after a culmination of delays amounting to 3 years, and/OAR is extremely happy to finally present a full length release featuring "singing sand" and "booming sand" recorded in Japan and Mongolia by British sound artists Isobel Clouter and Rob Mullender. "Singing sand", "booming sand", "whistling sand" or "barking sand" is sand that produces sounds of either
high or low frequency under pressure. The sound emission is usually triggered by wind passing over dunes or by walking on the sand.

Also featured are field recordings of a traditional Japanese Sawara Matsuri festival, a Suikinkutsu (underground water zither), Uguisubari (or Nightingale
floor), Chion-in temple and Saiho-ji temple .

The recordings came about as a result of a project instigated in late 1999, which bears witness to a long held fascination with how the environment
generates and shapes culture, memory and myth. There was no desire to conduct any scientific or anthropological field work, but to collect a set of
recordings which would serve to illustrate how precious the sonic environment can be, and to act as founding materials for a soundscape collection at the British Library Sound Archive.

The audio CD also features a PDF of extra photos pertaining to the recordings that can be accessed on a computer, and comes packaged in a four color digipak and a 12 page booklet.

This CD is dedicated to the memory of Professor Shigeo Miwa, whose warm generosity and enthusiasm was invaluable to the success of this recording project.

(label info)