Tiny Ass Pebbles.aif

'Listen for the smallest differences possible to perceive.' Pauline Oliveros' dictum is a process of undisciplining the ear. To decolonize the ear, as it were. expand the category of what constitutes 'music' beyond the sphere of the nominally 'musical.' politicize the ear and the field the ear resides in, situate listening as an historical achievement, think the 'field' of 'field recording' as a hierarchically structured space of domination and exploitation. and yet. and yet, here, we can here the openings to other possible worlds. electronic music is speculative acoustics: re-route narratives that bind music to one particular harmonic and melodic order outside and beyond itself.

Tiny Ass Pebbles. There is a small field of extremely small pebbles behind the stage in the Porter Quad at UCSC. This recording was made by playing with this field. It almost sounds granular. Tascam dr100, omnidirectional mode.

One sound taken from the 'Microblocks, vol.1' percussive found sound sample-pack. The sample-pack features 135 unique field recordings culled from the ordinary soundscapes of Santa Cruz, CA.

Find and download (for free) the rest of the sample pack here: https://fieldrecordingworkinggroup.bandcamp.com/releases

The sample pack comes with an accompanying essay describing the method, politics and historical context of the sample-pack.