Sound|Signal|Environment: Video Excerpt of Rodd Point Performance

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land, the Wangal people, in which this work was performed & would like to thank Deborah Lennis for her guidance regarding protocols for accessing and engaging with this site.

Video excerpt of a site-responsive 'soundscape' performance at Rodd Point, Iron Cove, Parramatta River as part of my ongoing Sound|Signal|Environment series. Processed field-recordings are played back into the environment in question intermingled with the field sound at the time of the performance to produce the final recording. In such a way, the recordist-composer becomes one actant among many which co-produce the ‘work’ as such.

Rodd Point: First Recording Session             

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Rodd Point
First Recording Session                                                                                            

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Field Notes

Morning cloud cover shrouds the bay (it reminds me of home). The seasons are starting to change now after a very mild autumn. 

Rodd Point is situated in an inlet from the main channel of the Parramatta river, known as Iron Cove, which is framed by suburbs, mudflats & mangroves, a popular walking track and a highway. 

It is low tide.

The boundary between Wangal & Cadigal country lies south along the Hawthorne Canal; one of the many tributaries of the Parramatta River that now operates as a stormwater channel. 

The sound of traffic noise dominates, reflecting across the water from the A4 highway, interspersed with the cries of gulls & pied cormorants. I record a few open field ambiances with my condenser mics; the lapping of the water, hum of the highway, and intermittent calls of the bird life intermingling. 

The occasional plane passes overhead; we are under one of the flight paths into Sydney airport. I fail to catch them in my recordings… next time.

As I am recording by the shoreline I notice a popping & crackling sound coming from the intertidal zone. I assume it is some kind of marine mollusk?

I record the popping sound with Andrew’s hydrophone; the crackles & pops of unidentified marine life, transduced through the distinct frequency range of a cheap piezoelectric device. 

I take a closer look at the mangroves to the south-west of the point; there is a concentration of bird life there, fossicking around in the mudflats. The battery in my recording device duly runs out (drained by providing phantom power to the shotgun mic).

Get a battery for the shotgun mic for the next outing.