More nice sonic memories of art events, this one in an open air space. Binaural soundwalk through and around the sound&light installation event by Ryoji Ikeda at Java Eiland, in the north of Amsterdam, within the monographic program of Dream Amsterdam 2008, which consisted in a few temporal site-specific interventions throughout the city by Ikeda, in addition to a concert in Paradiso and this event. I put online a set of photos of these series of events, also some videos shot in Paradiso which I eventually had to remove following a kind request by one of his agents.

The setting was superb and the installation run for one hour aprox, blending delicately with the surrounding soundscape. Afterwards, Ryoji performed a concert, consisting mostly of tracks from his well-known albums plus some unexpected ‘batucada-like’ moments, which made me think for a moment of being attending by mistake an Olympic Games inauguration event or something like that.

listen/download at freesound

Location: Java Eiland, Amsterdam
Date/Time: 21-06-2009 - 23h~
Mic/Recorder: Soundman OKM II / Hi-MD Sony MZ-RH1 (better on headphones)

*** UPDATE 1st June 09 ***

I got a message from Freesound:

[...] http://www.forma.org.uk/ reports that the recording you made of the sound instalation in amsterdam falls under copyright of the sound artist Ikeda, in his case represented by “forma”. [...]

conclusion: recording removed from Freesound and from this site.

This anecdote brings up an interesting discussion: to which extent sound (re)created in public space becomes part of the space or it remains ‘property’ of the sound-maker / copyright holder? … maybe it is important to remark that this installation was presented in what I think was an outdoor public access space of the city of Amsterdam… there was no ticket fee, no fences, no walls and even not a strictly delimited area.

…anyway, I guess after all it was an ‘open air (COPYRIGHTED) sound installation’ even if I didn´t notice any warning on the flyer or in the location preventing about making field recordings that day in the sound range perimeter of the installation.
I wonder if this also could be potentially applied not only to sound-art exhibits and actions in the public space but also recordings of street musicians, marching bands, Harley-Davidson(tm) motorbikes, church bells, ambulant sellers and so on and so forth.