Open Source: How to approach experimental field recording on a budget

Many people are put off doing field recordings because it sounds like an expensive hobby. Most of us don’t have Chris Watson’s hi-tech kit nor the budget to take a flight to Argentina and record the crackling sounds of melting glaciers.

Award-winning sound artist Frazer Merrick specialised in more attainable methods and down-to-earth methods of approaching field recordings which still create incredible results. He uses solar panels to turn light into complex rhythmic and harmonic patterns, contact mics to extract rich sounds from simple objects, and simple in-ear mics to make cheap and discreet binaural recordings.

In this talk, Frazer Merrick gives a guide to the equipment and methods he has used in his artistic practice that has helped him evolve a more DIY and experimental approach to field recording.