Speechification

Geoff Emerick and James Lock are two pioneering sound engineers who helped shape the sound of the last 40 years: Emerick as the teenage tech behind the experimental sound of the Beatles and former Decca guru Lock as the classical mastermind behind recordings like Pavarotti’s Otello.

In The Sound Makers (here’s the homepage and MP3) Paul Gambaccini - who’s going through something of a purple patch on Radio 4 at the moment - guides them along as they dole out reminiscences of working on some of the most legendary recordings of our lifetimes… including Emerick’s tale of how he got “a letter from the management” about his microphone positioning during the recording of Revolver.

Half an hour didn’t feel like quite enough - sound geeks will probably be itching for more by the end, as the discussion broadens out - but it’s intriguing listening that had me reaching for my record collection.

I’m putting this up quick because I reckon the five (five already!) Speechification contributors will be racing to do so. Since the rest of them probably have better things to do with their Saturday nights, I’m first! It’s another Archive Hour (I love the Archive Hour).

This one celebrates found and accidental and informal and amateur recordings collected by American independent media celebrities the ‘Kitchen Sisters’, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, for broadcast on their NPR radio show Lost and Found Sound.

If Russell’s last selection was Speechification crack, then this one must be Speechification cocoa. It’s full of breathtaking recordings from sources you won’t believe: 9/11 voicemail messages, a Buster Keaton sing-along, Tennessee Williams mucking around with his friends, a man who actually heard the Gettysburg Address… Moving and joyful stuff. (MP3).

And another thing: why don’t they just turn Saturday Live into a British Lost and Found Sound?

You’d think with four contributors (four!) things might have picked up round here. So, just to show we haven’t gone bankrupt or on holiday, here’s an almost perfect Archive Hour from March 2005 about idiosyncratic genius sound recordist (and calypso fanatic) Emory Cook - another man I would really like to have met. That’s all I’m saying. You’ll just have to listen (MP3).

The pic is from The Smithsonian.

Two reasons to post this soggy sound poem: first there’s sound legend Chris Watson’s astounding… er… sound. The man has something going on with the sound fairies. His recordings are so preternaturally authentic - kind of ‘hyper-real’.

In fact, I half expect to learn - in the report of a sweeping internal ‘fakery’ enquiry perhaps - that Watson just makes them all up, never leaving the warmth of his garden shed-cum-studio in leafy Chigwell (”yeah. I just squirt a bit of sea otter in here, bit of cormorant there and Bob’s your Uncle.”).

Second, there’s the very handy explanation of the tides given early on in the show. As a parent of school-age kids who’s had a go at explaining the action of the moon on the earth’s oceans once or twice, I just feel sure I’m going to need this again… (MP3, Real)