Tom Recchion – Oaxaca Dawn LP (Pic Disc)

“Oaxaca Dawn” and “Bamboo” are two raw, unadulterated, and unpretentious snapshots of specific moments in time and space: the early morning cracking of dawn in Oaxaca, Mexico and a windy afternoon in a Hana bamboo forest on Maui, Hawaii. Individually these audio documents are gorgeously simple, matter-of-fact presentations of travels. Together they are a recollection of their natural beauty, impossible to adequately render by any other means.

“I was struck by the cacophony of sounds at the dawn of light in the ‘suburb’ of Oaxaca where I was staying. It woke me everyday of my week long stay. It was like a barnyard turned up to 11. I brought a DAT machine and two Audio Technica microphones for the purpose of making field recordings on the trip. I woke up before the sun came up and set up the equipment in the dark. The first sound on the record is the moment the sun came over the horizon.
The bamboo forests on Maui were seared into my memory from my first time in Hawaii. On my second trip, armed with a first edition Edirol digital recorder, I hung out in the forest for a couple of hours to make the recordings. I noticed 3 distinct sounds (though there are more). The wood block clunking of the stocks, the squeaking of the thin branches flicking and slipping off neighboring plants and the white noise rustling of the leaves on top of the giant clusters.”

This beautiful LP features site-specific recordings and photographs by Tom Recchion, a sound and visual artist/composer/potter/art director and graphic designer. He is the co-founder of the legendary Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS) and has been an active, integral participant in the arts for more than forty years. Recchion lives in Pasadena, California.