Label: MSCTY_EDN

「フィールド・レコーディング入門」でお馴染み、柳沢英輔氏の2024年新作!!

北海道の東部、十勝の南部に位置するメム（大樹町）を拠点とするmemu earth labに2021年と2022年の冬から春にかけて計5週間ほど滞在し、周辺の様々な場所の響きを収録した。
録音機材を車に積み込み、さて今日はどの辺りに行こうかと広大な大地を車を走らせながら考える。周辺には森林や川があり、海岸沿いには湖沼群が点在している。市街地から離れると通り過ぎる車や人の姿はほとんど見かけない。一方、野生のキツネやタンチョウ、リスの姿は時折見かけるし、雪の上には何かの動物の足跡が点々と残っている。適当なところで車を停めて、機材を入れたバックを担ぎ、面白そうなポイント、何かが録れそうな雰囲気のするポイントが見つかるまでひたすら歩く。このようにしてたまたま出会ったさまざ
まな音がこの作品には収録されている。さらにこの土地で暮らす人々にも話を伺った。彼／彼女らが日々の暮らしの中でどのような音をどのように聴いているのかに興味があったからだ。
雪が積もった朝方、滞在していたバンガローから外に出ると耳が詰まったかと思うぐらいの静寂に慄く。自分の耳には「自然」の音しか聞こえないように感じられる場所でも、マイクロフォンが捉えた音からは人間の活動に伴う様々な音が聞こえてくる。例えば、大型トラックが国道を走る音、山で猟師が獲物を猟銃で撃つ音、上空を通過する飛行機の音、近隣の住居の室外機の音、そしてもちろん私自身が無意識のうちに立てている音もある。それでも、背景のノイズが少ない、小さな音が明瞭に聞こえる場所というのはそれだけで価値がある。ここはまさにそういう場所だ。
メムで出会った環境音、人々の声、それらを区別することなく、この土地の声として捉えてみる。土地の声に耳を澄まし、それらを録音し、録音された音に耳を傾けるという行為を通してどのような世界が立ち上がってくるだろうか。“メム”という言葉はアイヌ語で「泉が湧き出て魚が集まるところ」という意味があるそうだ。これらの音がリスナーそれぞれの記憶や身体的経験と結びつき、湧き水のように世界に対する想像力を涵養することを願って。
(版元解説)

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I stayed at memu earth lab, based in Memu (mem, Taiki Town), located in the southern part of Tokachi, eastern Hokkaido, for a total of five weeks during the winter and spring of 2021 and 2022, and recorded the sounds I encountered at various locations around the area.
Loading the recording equipment into the car, I would drive on the vast land while thinking, “Where should I go today?”
There are forests and rivers all around, and lakes and marshes dotting the coast. Away from the town centre, one rarely sees passing cars or people. On the other hand, wild foxes, red-crowned cranes, and squirrels can be seen from time to time, and the snow reveals a smattering of animal tracks.
I’d park the car at a suitable spot, carry our bags of equipment, and keep walking until I found a point that looked interesting or contained the atmosphere of something I could record. The various sounds that I encountered in this way are recorded in this work. In addition, we talked to the people who live in the area because I was interested in how and what kind of sounds they heard in their daily lives.
When I stepped out of the bungalow where we were staying on a snowy morning,
I shivered with such silence that I thought my ears were clogged. Even in places where it seemed like one can only hear the sounds of “nature” with their own ears, the microphones captured a variety of sounds associated with human activity. For example, there are the sounds of large trucks driving on national highways, hunters shooting their prey in the mountains, airplanes passing overhead, the sound of the outdoor units of neighbouring residences, and of course, the sounds I myself make subconsciously. Still, a place where there is little background noise and small sounds can be heard clearly is worthwhile in itself. This is just such a place.
Considering both the ambient sounds I encountered in Memu, and the voices of people, without distinguishing them, I try to perceive the two things as the voice of this land. By attentively listening to the voice of the land, recording it, and listening deeply to the recorded sounds, what kind of world will emerge? The word ‘Memu’ (mem, in Ainu sound) apparently means ‘a place where springs wells up and fish gathers’ in the Ainu language. It is my hope that these sounds will intertwine with the memories and physical experiences of each listener and nurture their imagination towards the world like spring water.

CD1
1 Dawn Forest　 8:23
2 Cowhouse 9:11
3 Living with Cows 9:36
4 Memu River 4:43
5 Stream near Banseisha 11:04
6 Life in the Past 8:42
7 kim-un-to 6:36

CD2
8 Listening through the Tochka 7:21
9 Horse Meals 6:35
10 Living with Horses 7:17
11 kamui-kotan 　　　　　　　　5:50
12 Rain, Harp and the Tochka 　 8:08
13 Walking on Melted Snow 　　 1:42
14 Frozen Memu River　　　　 7:44
15 Asahihama Fishing Port 　　 10:29
16 Midnight Forest 　　　　　　5:23

recorded, edited and mastered by Eisuke Yanagisawa
design by Takamitsu Ohta
photography by Takehito Goto
additional photography by Eisuke Yanagisawa
produced by Rereading Company
published by MSCTY + memu earth lab