While the Western world was celebrating Christmas Day, the GE-OS recording team arrived at the riverside village of Lubughat, Nepal, after a punishing six-hour descent from mountain top to valley floor. Here they found their next recording assignment – a performance of Mahji traditional songs, captures with a variety of direct-to-stereo recording rigs.

Populated by the Majhi culture, Lubughat is a fishing village where the usual tools of nets, hooks and bait have been dispensed with in favour of long strings of snares that are stretched across the river to catch fish as they pass through.

 

The GE-OS Project update #04

Day 4, 25 December 2010

In the early evening, after setting their snares and tending their fields, the Majhis led the GE-OS team to a clearing where they performed a number of traditional songs. Standing in a large semi-circle, 20 or so people sang in unison accompanied by rhythms played on dolak (a large two-headed drum) and small cymbals. As is often the case with village recordings, the rest of the local population attended; listening, talking and occasionally singing along.

Numerous direct-to-stereo recording rigs were set-up by the team members, with the primary rig being a pair of DPA 4023 compact cardioids in an ORTF configuration. ‘Large ensemble recordings such as this require a sense of size and space, and nothing beats a pair of spaced omnis for that application. However, when directionality is required to minimise capturing too much of the surrounding sounds, a near-coincident technique such as ORTF is the best choice’ explains team leader Greg Simmons. ‘The 4023’s excellent off-axis response makes it an ideal choice for ORTF, where sounds in the centre of the stereo image actually arrive at 55° off-axis to each microphone. Lesser microphones usually create a hole-in-the-middle effect at high frequencies when used in ORTF.’

After the singing, the entertainment continued with a humorous theatrical performance involving drunken semi-naked villagers caked in mud and wearing fake beards. The story appeared to be about a village hero who was reluctantly crowned king, but the true meaning remains a mystery; partly due to the drunken nature of the performers and partly due to the drunken nature of the recording team – who had been continually plied with the local home brew during the course of the evening…

About The GE-OS Project

Founded by Greg Simmons in 2008, The GE-OS Project takes audio students and other interested parties on international recording expeditions to capture the sounds and music of different countries and cultures. The goal is to make the highest quality recordings under the circumstances, with an emphasis on the educational aspects of recording on location.

‘GE-OS’ is an acronym for ‘Guerrilla Ethnomusicology – Open Source’, a reflection of the recording philosophies and dissemination methods used by the project. The recordings fall into three broad categories: direct-to-stereo ethnographic recordings of traditional music performed in traditional contexts, multitrack recordings of local musicians improvising over backing tracks, and phonographic recordings of city sounds, village sounds and nature sounds. On completion of the project, all recordings will be placed on line for anyone to access and use under the terms of a Creative Commons licensing scheme.

The GE-OS Project is currently undertaking its third extended recording expedition and gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of Amber Technology, DPA Microphones and TC Electronic.