From a cultural history of hearing, we know that hearing, as a sense of information and orientation, was ranked before seeing. The gods, first and foremost, could be heard (if one could set eyes on them at all). From the sounds of thunder and lightning – though one can not see their origin – one reads the wrath of the gods. The invisible fires one’s imagination. Ulysses does not succumb to the singing of the sirens since he has allowed himself to be tied up at the mast of his ship. He does not see the sirens, he only hears them. Its invisibility renders the singing dangerous. It is the potentiality which the invisibility attributes to it, that which is not used, the innominated attender. It is this which drives Ulysses wild. Cristoph Korn

What is the difference between noises and music? Does every sound that is not recorded for scientific purposes automatically become music? Field recordings have only recently been recognized as a bona fide artistic genre. A field recording is generally used to describe any recording captured outside of a recording studio, it often involves the capture of low level, complex and ambient noise. Field recordists and sound artists listen to sounds of the world and record them. They can present their recordings unedited or sometimes collage and manipulate them – arrange them into compositions, create installations and sound sculptures.

Our series on online PDF magazines continues with a publication which focuses solely on the subject of field recording. The first two issues have many interesting articles and essays from a diverse range of artists, philosophers and academics. It also contains some pleasing pictures of locations in which field recordings take place. So go ahead and download those first two issues here. Or check out their website if you would like to download the German version.