At the end of July I was in Nova Scotia to start work on a project with India Gailey. The idea was to travel around Nova Scotia recording instruments, natural sounds, and ourselves in interesting acoustics. I'll be shaping the recordings we made into an EP that should be released this fall.
On our first day, after a wrong turn and a river crossing, we found our way into Hayes cave. The cave has a tiny entrance that immediately opens up into a huge cavern filled with wonderful sounds of dripping water and a small lake. We brought in a cello and recorded some wonderful improvisation that mixed beautifully with the sounds and acoustic of the cave.
For day two, we decided to explore York Redoubt, an abandoned fort at the mouth of the Halifax harbour. We recorded some drumming on cannons then explored the abandoned buildings. Inside a former gun emplacement on the coast we found a concrete hall with some gorgeous and impressive reverb. We improvised for a couple hours with cello, mandolin, singing, harmonica, stomping, and some old bow hair.
For our third and final day of recording, we started at Blomidon, where we got to record small waves that quickly changed as the strong tide moved visibly up the beach and some beautiful drips of water coming down the cliffs.
After Blomidon, we moved to the Gaspereau River. We found an open part of the forest near the river and recorded some more cello and mandolin.
