KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ World Ear Project: Transmission One, Aug. 1970, 3 of 3

Analog Audio

Event Type

Other Finds

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

WEP.1970.08.20.C

Program Series

World Ear Project

Program Length

88 min

Part

3 of 3

Dates

1970-08-20 | broadcast
| 1970-08-18 | created

Description

The first transmission of KPFA’s groundbreaking series, the World Ear Project, featuring unedited ambient recordings of unique or unusual environments. There is more to the world than our poor eyesight and hearing would let us believe. Survival of humanity may depend on the expansion of consciousness so as to encompass the entire globe, through the amplification of one’s perceptive powers beyond the normal limits of seeing and hearing. The World Ear Project was an attempt to bring everybody’s ears a little closer. KPFA asked their listeners and friends from around the world to send in recordings made in common places of the sounds that surround our daily existence. The environments in which these recording were made were the sole subject of the project. It was the philosophy of those that began this endeavor, hosts Charles Amirkhanian and Richard Friedman, that one key step in trying to understand our neighbors is getting to know the setting in which they carry out their daily lives. In this inaugural program some of the sounds you will hear are ocean sounds from around the Golden Gate, an early morning feeding at a Canadian farm, Pentecostal singers in Union Square in San Francisco, and conga drummers at U. C. Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza. In addition to playing these field recordings Amirkhanian and Friedman also review the various technical details that should be followed by anyone submitting their own ambient recording for future broadcast.

Genres

Field recordings

Musical Selections

[harbor and houseboats, Sausalito, California] (5:00) / Richard Friedman -- [Pentecostal singers, Union Square, San Francisco, Aug. 16, 1970] (3:20) / Richard Friedman -- [drummers at Sproul Plaza, U. C. Berkeley, Aug. 16, 1970] (4:00) / Richard Friedman -- [drummers below in Sproul Plaza, U. C. Berkeley, Aug. 16, 1970] (7:00) / Richard Friedman

Subjects

Ambient sounds
Field recordings
Sound -- Recording and reproducing
Waterfront sounds
City sounds
Songs (Mixed voices) with instrumental ensemble
Percussion ensembles
Drum circles

Acknowledgment

Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by Save America’s Treasures, a program of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Related places

Berkeley (Calif.) (was recorded at)
Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)

Related Entities

Amirkhanian, Charles
Friedman, Richard