landscape in metamorphoses | Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

[gruenrekorder]

landscape in metamorphoses | Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Field Recordings of India

http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=301



Tumbani is a landscape in change; from a greener pasture transforming into one of the busiest industrial belts of Bengal-Bihar border in India. This work is based on an extensive phonographic journey made in this area during the spring of 2007.
The area under attention is mostly inhabited by discreet tribal population who survived with cultivation of land, hunting and a deep-rooted community tradition for many years. In the last few years the area has been discovered of its stone resources, making way into foundation of small-scale industries for cement and concrete. People and land are used in the industrialization process initiating collective change in the landscape, which is quite a common phenomenon in this developing country. A fertile land of rapid change, tumbani is one of the sites which succumbed to the euphoria over industrial development, improving lifestyle and growth, creating lapses in cultural memory.
Sound captures this transformation while the acoustic space slowly changes from a rich environmental variety into a monolithic industrial soundscape. As an audio essay the work studies the trajectory of metamorphoses in unprocessed field recording.
From a motivation of return and revisit, being spent my childhood here, I realized while going through the recording experience, the topography of my childhood already disappeared into nostalgia. Not merely a sonic representation of a transfigured landscape, this work is also a lamentation over my own personal loss of memory-associations.


Recorded at "tumbani" between February and April 2007

Equipment used: "acoustic engine" MD recorder from Sony, OKM II binaural microphone from Soundman, and occasionally a KMR shotgun from Neumann.

Recommended listening: by headphone


Order: http://www.gruenrekorder.de/shop/#Gr_057


1 Track (26´02)
CD-R (50 copies)



Dedicated to my father

Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2008 / Gr 057 / LC 09488



Reviews

01 Tobias Fischer / tokafi
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay: Documents a Landscape in Metamorphoses
"Audio Practitioner" Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is drawing attention to the rapid social and geocultural transformation of his native India on his latest album. "Landscape in Metamorphoses", a 26-minute collection of field recordings on German label Gruenrekorder, documents the stormy environmental changes taking place in Tumbani, "one of the busiest industrial belts at the Bengal-Bihar border". Recorded between February and April of last year with little more than a simple MD recorder and a binaural microphone, "Landscape in Metamorphoses" aims at delivering both a vivid sonic snapshot and a strong political statement: "The area under attention is mostly inhabited by discreet tribal population who survived with cultivation of land, hunting and a deep-rooted community tradition for many years", Budhaditya Chattopadhyay explained, "In the last few years the area has been discovered of its stone resources, making way into foundation of small-scale industries for cement and concrete. People and land are used in the industrialization process initiating collective change in the landscape, which is quite a common phenomenon in this developing country. A fertile land of rapid change, tumbani is one of the sites which succumbed to the euphoria over industrial development, improving lifestyle and growth, creating lapses in cultural memory."

To Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, sound is ideally suited for making these processes transparent. The richly detailed sonic exuberance has made way for a static and oppressive industrial noisescape. By presenting his recordings in their pure original state, Chattopadhyay emphasizes their political aspect, while leaving questions of exact interpretation to the listener.
Despite its analytical nature, "Landscape in Metamorphoses" also deals with feelings of helplessness at loosing one`s most cherished memories - and is therefore ultimately a deeply personal work: "From a motivation of return and revisit, being spent my childhood here, I realized while going through the recording experience, the topography of my childhood already disappeared into nostalgia. Not merely a sonic representation of a transfigured landscape, this work is also a lamentation over my own personal loss of memory-associations."


02 Frans de Waard / VITAL WEEKLY
Its never easy to judge field recordings, but things might be more difficult if the place that is subject is unknown to the reviewer. Such is the case with a place called Tumbai, `a landscape in change; from a greener pasture transforming into one of the busiest industrial belts of Bengal-Bihar border in India`, so says Budhaditya Chattopadhyay on the cover of his piece "Landscape In Metamorphoses". Had we not known this, could we have told after hearing this? Always a though question, since simply we know now and yes, we can tell now. It starts with what we could agrarian surround sounds, with animal sounds, people talking but over the course of the piece some mechanical, motor like sounds come in. That may be the "industrial belts" at work, but could be the engine of a motorboat. Its never easy, is it? I must say however that I quite enjoyed this release, simply for the story like way of putting the piece together and the excellent quality of the recordings, simply pass the political implications that this release also has. Excellent stuff. (FdW)