Field Recording Drift

My Drift strategy was to continue walking from campus until I hit a dead end, while alternating left and right turns every five to ten minutes. On the walk, I was looking for very distinct sounds, which was difficult because most of the area was residential, as well as interesting objects/circumstances for mic placement.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a rather oddly placed pipe in the middle of a park which turned out to be quite interesting.

Drift One - Pump Pipe
October 20th @ 11:42AM
Run Time: 00:35
Commentary
Location: Public park near the old water pump

Luckily, the Drift eventually led me to a dead end: the beach! Although the next two clips consist of water sounds, they have very different qualities:

Drift Two - Shore Pier
October 20th @ 1:30PM
Run Time: 00:32
Commentary
Location: Pier at Milwaukee Harbor

Drift Three - Beach Rocks
October 20th @ 2:06PM
Run Time: 00:28
Commentary
Location: On top of rock wall near Milwaukee Harbor

---PART 2---

Brian Lis
Film 116 - Field Recording
Drift One - Pump Pipe

While at the park around the old water tower in Milwaukee, I noticed something odd; a pipe sticking out of the grass in the middle of the park. The area was surrounded by trees and shrubs, housing the water tower to the east and a concrete rotunda with a fountain just in the middle. Residential streets surrounded the park on all four sides, but there was not too much activity. I felt inclined to sit down on a bench for a while and just rest from all the walking. I was amazed at how peaceful a park in the middle of the city could be; the sound of birds chirping and the wind calmly swaying leaves of trees. I looked around.
Tree. Tree. Couple walking. Grass. Grass. Pipe?
I walked over to it. The pipe was about a foot and a half tall, white in color. To the right of it lay a small steel door, possibly utility storage. I didn’t question why the two objects were there, because a city needs its various underground infrastructures, but rather why they were placed in that exact spot; unprotected, unmarked, and sitting in the middle of the park. Not too overwhelmed by this thought and pursuing my drift strategy, I shoved one of the microphones into the pipe.
A low resonating hum filled my right ear. At first I thought I heard water dripping; an image of a cave came to mind. The sound felt hollow and vast, suddenly I heard a rhythmic scratching. A shovel perhaps? Maybe someone was in the trap door. Maybe it was a sound emitting from a Metropolis-esque underground, in which the city’s working class toiled with hard labor.
Maybe not.
After a while of listening, the sound became almost angelic. It sounded like a choir holding a note for an endless amount of time, which made the pipe seem even more mysterious.
In my left ear, however, I heard a calm natural setting: birds chirping, leaves blowing past me. Even a squirrel was brave enough to approach me, rustling in some leaves over to my left. The stereo-image was quite ironic. One would never expect that just below this façade of peace and quiet, a system of pipes created such a hollow, mysterious sound. And the only link between the creepy, disorienting, depths of the city and the pristinely planned urban park was an innocent looking, albeit misplaced, pipe.