Digging for Truffles … and Sound

Several recent Disquiet Downstream entries have focused on the sound of food, sourced from the ongoing podcast series Le Menu Gastrophonique. That audio periodical approaches the sonic properties of comestibles from various angles, including kitchen activities (disquiet.com), the digestive system (disquiet.com), and outright synesthesia (disquiet.com). But Gastrophonique isn’t alone in this edible-sound territory. Another podcast series, Touch Radio (a spin-off of the great Touch record label), features in its most recent entry, dated December 9, an audio documentary of a truffle hunt, captured by Pascal Wyse. The sound is not unlike that of other rustic field recordings — the intrusion of moisture, the rustling of leaves, the bark of a dog, the intermittent human sounds — but the context lends a hint of drama, and expectation, to the proceedings. Wyse has encoded the recording not as an MP3 but as an M4A, a format that allows the inclusion of images from the truffle hunt (music file: M4A). More details at touchradio.org.uk.