New Topophonics: Field Recordings of the Human-Altered Landscape Daniel Tovar

Recorded near Island Lake in the Tahoe National Forest 🌿 It is late morning. On the hike out to the lake, the landscape is soothingly green and lush. The panorama of mountains, streams, and towering Jeffrey Pines with moss-covered trunks is a postcard image of wilderness. But in the distance is a noise, a soft clanging that is out of place. Perhaps music from an inconsiderate camper’s radio? Someone trying to scare off a bear? I hike toward the sound and eventually spot the source at the bottom of the hill, lazily eating alongside the lake: grazing cattle. Amid the more usual sights of the Sierra Mountains, the presence of cows is surprising. I slowly walk down the hill towards them, careful not to startle, and set up my recording gear at the edge of the lake. Among the sounds of lapping water, singing birds, and rustling leaves, the percussive clatter of the cowbells create rhythmic phrases that emerge and then vanish — the complicated, evolving, hypnotic polyrhythm of the bovines’ grazing gestures. 🔔 More at http://tovar.io/newtopophonics


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Recorded live, June 27, for the LA Dept. of Transportation's "Transformation Through Transportation" telethon, curated by Renée Reizman. Stay-at-home orders have had the unintended consequence of giving Angelenos a new vantage point of the city: that of the pedestrian. "The Train to the Sea" is a sound and poetry performance by me, Daniel Tovar, and Jenn Swann, reflecting on the post-pandemic LA landscape through observations and field recordings captured during our daily walks.

Daniel Tovar: Sounds (Make Noise 0-Coast, Moog Mother 32, and field recordings taken in Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA)

Jenn Swann: Words


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Recorded in the Angeles National Forest, Fusier Canyon. It is on a whim, a moment of spontaneity that seems so rare these days when all excursions outside the house are carefully planned, that I decide on a morning hike into the Angeles National Forest. This morning, like the previous few mornings, the air is cool, ideal for a hike. But after a few hours on the trail, unlike previous days, it becomes increasingly hot, rising from 70, to 80, to the mid 90s. I’m not prepared for this. The trail is largely free of tree-cover, winding through the sparse low-growing yuccas and other bushes that mark that unique transition from forest to desert so common in the ANF. I start to feel light-headed, but I know there is shade not too far ahead. After what seems like an increasingly dangerous 20 minutes or so, I finally get to the stream of water that runs down the center of the canyon. In the cool moist air beneath the tree canopy, I rest with the birds, bees, butterflies, and other insects escaping the intense Southern California sun. I set my mics up for a period that seems brief, but I learn later was a dazed 45 minutes. Listening back to the recordings now, they seem to convey that same woozy relaxation, an oasis of respite from a seething world.


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Recorded in DTLA near City Hall on Sunday, May 31. The streets are relatively empty while the city readies its show of state power. Eric Garcetti had announced the arrival of the National Guard the previous night, and here they are. Alongside cops in riot gear, rifle-clad, fatigue-wearing soldiers are posed around City Hall and paraded down the street in armored vehicles. Their sand-colored fatigues and cars look markedly out of place. It is an aesthetic that I associate with our wars in the Middle East. Alongside this visual projection of power is a sonic one: the patter of helicopters hovering above, clicks and tinny voices coming from police radios, and the constant yelp of sirens echoing through the corridors of high-rises. Garcetti and his Chief of Police Michael Moore have repeatedly emphasized their desire for “peace.” But their words are clearly farcical in juxtaposition to the blaring, anxiety-inducing sounds of the city. 

(Content warning: contains audio of police shooting protesters with rubber bullets)

All sounds original recordings except archival recordings taken from:


1. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore’s press conference May 31 (https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=182573599745722)
2. Zoom Police Commission meeting with Michael Moore (http://lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=19995&view_id=97)
3. @mkultranews via @ionel_prodan (https://twitter.com/ionel_prodan/status/1266916445662752768)
4. @mkultranews (https://twitter.com/mkultranews/status/1266884729673900032)
5. Alluringskull (tiktok) via @AdoreDelano (https://twitter.com/AdoreDelano/status/1267688320735166465) 


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Recorded in my backyard, Highland Park, Los Angeles 🌿 As the school semester ends and the shelter-in-place orders continue indefinitely, the world has steadily contracted. Walks around the neighborhood have become increasingly dull and without classes to teach and meetings to attend over Zoom, social interactions are confined to my household. Our weed and bougainvillea-ridden backyard provides a blessed bit of respite, socially isolated but sonically connected to the surrounding neighborhood. Maskless, I enjoy the intimate, delicate, ASMR-quality of gardening, framed by the birds, next-door neighbors, and the inescapable drone of traffic. 🌎 More at http://tovar.io/newtopophonics


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Recorded at dawn on a hike into Fusier Canyon 🌿 I begin the three-hour hike into Fusier Canyon in the dark. My flashlight illuminates a small circle of light ahead of me, tracing an occasionally washed-out trail carved into the side of a steep incline. In the daylight, you'd see a small stream, Golden Yarrow flowers, and spiky Chaparral Yucca in the canyon below—but right now all I can see is blackness. At daybreak, I arrive at a portion of the trail that straddles a ridge overlooking Vogel Canyon to the West and Fusier Canyon to the East. I attach a couple lav mics to a Chaparral on the side of the trail and start recording.

More info at http://tovar.io/newtopophonics


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