S.O.S. Hildegard Westerkamp

‘Beneath The Forest Floor’ – Hildegard Westerkamp – 1992

Extract 1
 http://audiogallery.musiccentre.ca/en/work.php?section=electronic%20frontiers&work=52775

Extract 2
http://soundcloud.com/ear-room/hildegard-westerkamp

Throughout creates a sense of space of unease as it comes across to me as very chilling & haunting.

Throughout you can hear the sound of birds, flapping wings, bugs, howling winds brushing leaves & possible bats & other wildlife that I cannot distinguish. However for me it does not create a space of peacefulness, the mood is very eerie & unsettling & along with the added low bass rumble it gave me a sense of being lost at night in the forest.

The Panning of the sound from speaker to speaker showed movement & made me feel as though you was there in forest with the wildlife moving around you.

'A Walk Through The City' - Mildegard Westerkamp - 1981

Extract 1
http://johnroach.net/wordpress/lab/?p=78

Extract 2 (At bottom of page)
http://www.ymxmedia.com/en/oeuvres/fiches/a/w/a-walk-through-the-city-westerkamp-ruebsaat.php

Based on a poem with the same title like Westerkamp’s other example ‘Beneath the Forest Floor’ this again does not create a sense of positivity.

From the beginning of the sound of planes over head to the brakes of cars to the whistle of trains, this all creates a sense of space of intrusion of personal space as it is all very loud and almost unbearable, I believe it creates a negative impression of the city as there is not escape from all this noise.  The sounds come in with very immediate quick cuts that are alarming, sharp & somewhat painful. It gets into your personal space and stays there so you cannot escape or think about anything else, there is also a constant low rumbling and the sound pans from one speaker to another throughout which create an unsettling sense of space and again make you feel you are there amongst all the chaos.