Recording at the most usual Places

The Love Songs is Sven Swift. This is my new record.

It’s a collection of chosen Field-Recordings, carefully edited but pure and without “musical” treatment. I intended to create an aural fingerprint of my surroundings- which is quite another point than recording at the most unusual places. Furthermore, a focus on ambient/ drone/ minimal-sources is applied. I tried to find a balance between academic recordings (first half) and a rather emotional approach (tracks three and four). Download the whole set of files in lossless FLAC-compression (126MB) here. If you prefer MP3-files, switch over to last.fm.
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Recordings in order of appearance

Decelerate (Don’t Try this at Home)
I’m working in a laboratory at the university and found a trick to open one of our huge Sorvall-centrifuges while running. Brakes applied, the rotor was decelerating slowly as i treated the heavy metal pot with various metal objects.
You can hear rich metallic clicks, harsh scraping and the sucking winds which wail when bodies move fast.

Fluid to Gas
This one is quite obvious. I’m boiling two cups of water in an electric kettle in our kitchen. It’s fascinating how the sound of the water moving from fluid to gas changes throughout the whole process.

Washing Machine
Another recording straight from our cozy kitchen. We got this machine a year ago and I was mesmerized by it’s characteristic sound instantly. You can modulate the texture by the type of dishes you pack in, by the program you choose and the position of the mics.
A washing machine is a grateful instrument. I could fill whole albums with the sound of our washing machine. And yes, it’s also the title of my favorite Sonic Youth-record.

The Autobahn A Mile Away
I’m hanging out with my wife Anne at a lake near our home. It’s a sunny October-afternoon. Kids walk by, you can hear seagulls and the awkward squeaks of the pedalos. It’s Anne who quotes “Ein Fisch!”. Far in the back, you can hear the Autobahn. It’s not too obvious, but typical for the area we’re living in.
There’s ALWAYS the sound of cars somewhere.
A mile away. More or less.

You may use this recordings for your music.
Please give me an email in case you’re interested.