This is not an industrial variant on synthesized white noise. It is not a composite of fractured random sonic particulate across the audio spectrum. Well, it is, but it isn’t synthesized; it isn’t the result of software or hardware. This crunch, this rumpled-paper sonority, this harsh, brush-like texture — it is a simple field recording. The subject of the microphone is the interaction of wind and grass. Writes Leslie Rollins, of Berrien Springs, Michigan, in a brief accompanying note:
A recording of wind moving the tall, brittle grasses which occupy the dividing line between the sandy shore and the beginning of dune elevation in Warren Dunes State Park. It was a blustery day with constant wind rustling the stalks. I was able to wedge the two contact microphones at the base of two clumps and they held them, almost like a clothes pin, while the wind whipped the tops. I was surprised how sharp and pointy the drier stems were as they jabbed me while I got the microphones in place.
Perhaps most remarkable is the sheer length, the uninterrupted consistency.
Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/337is. More from Rollins/337is at facebook.com/337is.