The Listening Field - Reflections on Field Recording

Chris Prinz

Field recordings and reflections on listening. Documenting real spaces on the threshold between sound and silence.

  1. S02E08 - Room Tone

    09/07/2025

    S02E08 - Room Tone

    The quietest episode yet. (Pls. use Headphones) Room tone is the sound of a space when nothing is happening - the acoustic fingerprint that every room carries. It's what film sound recordists capture on set to make dialogue feel natural, but it's also something we're constantly processing in our daily lives without realizing it. Our brains use these subtle audio cues to understand the size, shape, and character of the spaces around us. This episode is an exploration of the dimensions of sound in enclosed spaces. Followed by a recording of a quiet mountain lodge, the silence covered by a layer of noise, as its just to quiet for the gear to capture. Nevertheless, interesting to listen to: TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Exploring Room Tone 06:45 The quiet room tone of a shared Mountain Lodge Extended listening without narration on the ⁠Youtube Channel⁠. More thoughts on Field Recording and each Episode at: https://thelisteningfield.substack.com

    35 min
  2. S02E07 - Tea and Thunder

    08/31/2025

    S02E07 - Tea and Thunder

    In this episode, I invite you into my studio in Vienna on a stormy September morning. While heavy rain and wind rolled through the city, I prepared my daily tea session: Chinese sheng pu’er, brewed in the mindful way of Gong Fu Cha. The first part of the episode is simply the storm itself — one of the heavy thunderstorms that swept through Austria on September 15th, 2024 and on my windows. Midway through,the recording I begin my tea session. You’ll hear the metal hotplate expanding with heat, the clay kettle coming to a boil, and the tiny teapot opening and pouring, again and again, through many steeps. Pu’er tea has become an important part of my life, a time away from the spinning world. I hope you can imagine the cozy room, the rising steam, and the rhythm of the rain outside as you join me in this session. TIMESTAMPS 03:00 Thunderstorms 25:00 Tea session starting Episodes without Narration on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@The-Listening-Field My Blog with Exploration on Pu'er Tea: https://tealog.net

    55 min
  3. S02E06 - A quiet Winter Morning in the Alps

    08/24/2025

    S02E06 - A quiet Winter Morning in the Alps

    In this episode, we delve into the quiet nature sounds of a Sunday morning from our cozy little house tucked away in the mountains of Austria.The early morning was bathed in the glow of a full moon, accompanied by a gentle and chilly breeze that rustled through the bushes in the garden and the pine trees on the distant mountains.However, as the episode progresses (at 33:15), the strong winds that had been present throughout the night begin to pick up again, creating an eerie atmosphere. Recorded on December 15th, 2024, 06.30 A.M. with a DIY SASS, from my balcony. Part of Season 2: The Sound of Space — a podcast about field recording and the art of conscious listening. Extended listening without narration on the ⁠Youtube Channel⁠.

    45 min
  4. S02E05 - Enclosed Spaces: Trains

    08/17/2025

    S02E05 - Enclosed Spaces: Trains

    Episode 5 of Season 2 explores how sound behaves in enclosed, moving spaces. Featuring field recordings from three different trains: a dampened carriage from Sarajevo to Mostar, an early morning tram in Prague, and the small Alpine Murtalbahn railway. Listening through headphones reveals how these contained spaces filter and shape both interior sounds and the passing world outside. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Narration 03:40 "Dampened Train" in Sarajevo 10:00 Early Morning Tram in Prague 18:00 Little Alpine Train For the pure soundscape without narration, visit the YouTube channel "⁠The Listening Field.⁠"

    25 min
  5. S02E04 - City Hum

    08/10/2025

    S02E04 - City Hum

    A winter night recording from Vienna's Wienerberg - an elevated plateau where the city reveals its acoustic wholeness. From 60 meters above, all those individual sounds of urban life - traffic, heating systems, distant conversations - merge into one continuous drone. The city becomes a single breathing presence, a foggy cloud of sound hovering in the darkness. Recorded December 29th, 2023, with stereo ambient sampling microphones. For the pure soundscape without narration, visit the YouTube channel "The Listening Field."

    18 min
  6. S02E03 - The Sound of Snow

    08/03/2025

    S02E03 - The Sound of Snow

    You know those winter mornings when everything feels impossibly quiet? This episode captures one of those rare moments - a Sunday morning recording from the Austrian mountainside after fresh snowfall. Snow acts like nature's most effective acoustic treatment, absorbing sound waves, leaving just the feel of a muted field in front of you. Extended listening without narration: ⁠YouTube channel "The Listening Field"⁠  The Listening Field - Season 2: The Sound of Space

    25 min
  7. S02E02 - Backyard Scapes

    07/27/2025

    S02E02 - Backyard Scapes

    Those hidden pockets scattered throughout cities - spaces where the public-facing world blends into the private lives of people. This episode explores three different backyards at different times of the day, in different cities. From a November morning in Prague where artificial light melts with the waking day, to a Viennese residential yard where fragments of life fall like musical notes from windows, to a cobblestone square where hard stones reflect the city's awakening. Timestamps:  04:00 - Prague Dawn Passage 10:00 - Vienna Residential Evening30:00 - Vienna Cobblestone Yard Morning The space becomes an acoustic instrument, shaping and reflecting the sounds that pass through it. These are threshold spaces - not quite inside, not quite outside - where the city shows its softer side. Extended listening without narration: YouTube channel "The Listening Field" Next episode: How spaces sound when muted by the first snow. The Listening Field - Season 2: The Sound of Space

    38 min
  8. S01E01 - Diffuse Sounds: A Viennese Courtyard

    07/20/2025

    S01E01 - Diffuse Sounds: A Viennese Courtyard

    Field recordings from a fourth-floor window in Vienna, where city sounds bounce between walls and gradually fade. Three recordings from the same courtyard show how the acoustic character of a space changes throughout the day. TIMESTAMPS: Dawn - The city slowly awakening - 4:50  Morning - Traffic and early risers - 11:00  Evening- The courtyard comes alive - 20:30 What might sound like background noise reveals quieter details when you listen closely. Also, if you prefer to listen to the sound without any narration, i put the an extended Version on Youtube.

    35 min
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Field recordings and reflections on listening. Documenting real spaces on the threshold between sound and silence.

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