the ultimate in sound effects...

well, we move from one side of sublime - tarkovsky's poetic use of sound; to the opposite end of the sublime spectrum...

a few weeks ago i found a little 1950 catalog from the major records company at the flea market. it features 20 pages of of 78's containing various sound effects for "radio stations, dramatic groups, movie makers, and music stores". the catalog is reads like a list of sounds and situations, and my original intention was to post it as a kind of concrete poetry. then i happened upon one of the actual records...

the disc is from a series of animal sounds, and the side i recorded contains the sounds of (in order of appearance) "screech owl, cat screeches, frog calls, grimalkin cat, hedgehog, harpie cries". the catalog states that every sound is recorded "FROM LIFE"; so when i put the record on i expected, of course, to hear some relatively straightforward animal recordings.

i'm pretty darn sure that the sounds here are not the actual animals, but in fact, A HUMAN TRYING TO IMITATE THEM. be very afraid. what i'm wondering now is what the subway train, gasoline pump, excavation shovel, wind, calliope, and teletype might sound like... welcome to the other side of sublime...

click here to listen

big metal cloud of train sound...

a home made early radio sound effect disc made by buddy kling. note the hand written label: "sound effect riding on train". you can hear a whistle at times but the rest sounds a lot like a hugely distorted dust storm coming from a giant cloud made of metal.

speaking of large colored clouds, i'm taking the train down to san diego today to see a morris louis show. the paintings should be a lot quieter than this.

the train here is a cluster of droning majestic confrontational transcendence, like henry flynt in a metallic dream house.

with trains, i can't help but think of the films of ozu, and this sounds like one of his early films that hasn't been restored.

take a listen and have a pleasant journey.