Paper short abstract:

Composition can intensify the evocative potential of field recordings and even develop ethnographic arguments in the acoustic medium. If accompanied by collaborative processes, it can be the site of a useful dialogue between the artistic field and a social science such as the anthropology of sound.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation examines the concept of composition as a research method of artistic origin that can introduce fictional characteristics to field recordings. Inspired by recent work by Steven Feld and based on an ongoing project that will result in a multichannel immersive audio installation, I stress four devices of composing with field recordings for multi-channel: representation of space, rendition of points of listening, time condensation and layering. Through these devices, compositions can evoke space and experience and even develop arguments in sound. Further, the process of composition can be supplemented by collaborative methodologies that can move the accent from the ethnographer’s perception to shared histories of listening.

Since 2004 I have been part of ongoing team research at the Maggio festival in Accettura, southern Italy, where inhabitants bring from the woods and lift in the town square a tree more than 30 metres tall. The festival is a whirlwind of instrumental music, songs and non-human sounds of all kinds. In 2023 and 2024 we recorded and filmed the festival using a variety of methods, including first-order ambisonic microphones. The combination of surround recordings and composition techniques will allow to create fictional conjunctures of time and perspectives, underlining for example the way music influenced the movement of people and animals at the festival, or the skilled listening of some protagonists in key roles. Importantly, the fictional character of these artistic interventions beyond documentation requires an opening of the compositional process to local ears, through processes of feedback and dialogic editing.