Value In The Passing Of Time

As soon as a sound has been committed to tape, it becomes a historical document of value and interest. It is a ‘record’ of a moment in the history of the world. The process of field recording is like taking a pipette sample of the living breathing vibrating world, from the continuum of life and sound. And any sound sample can become relevant. Rather like the ‘pointless’ photos we protest about being taken at the time, four years later we are so grateful that some kind of imprint exists.

I recently listened to the ambience of empty rooms in the Twin Towers in New York, from a recording in 2000 by Francisco Lopez. It may not have seemed that relevant to capture an ‘empty room ambience’ at the time, but of course listening to that sound in 2017 is now eerie, as that space (and the entire building that contained it) no longer exists. The value of this unproven ambient recording increases directly, from historical events.