I always miss those times in the last century when I rode on a bicycle alone for weeks in the highlands. I knew every single road and trail that could be found on maps, and other routes too. I had a special ability to look at maps and make detailed travel plans based on route conditions and weather forecasts. I knew very well my physical limitations and all the places where I could seek from bad weather. Therefore I never had any problems in my travels.
Without meeting people or seeing human structure, nature and I merged into one. The journeys were therefore both mentally and physically rejuvenation.
After the year 2002, cars and traffic began to increase rapidly in Iceland. Mountain huts that used to be shelters were now closed. Many emergency huts were removed due to poor handling. It became increasingly difficult to travel without being disturbed by noisy humans and without shelter in remote locations.
One of these very few emergency huts that still exist and are open and have saved many lives is on a Kaldidalur route. For me this hut was often a first overnight stop from Reyakjavík on the way to cross the highland.
I was in Kaldidalur 28th of May 2017 to record the surroundings. I decided to record beside the hut to record a familiar sound.
This is a typical soundscape for Icelandic highland. Birds in the distance and windy and if not windy and rainy then complete silence.
Inside the hut was normally the same sound but more silent, except if there was buzzing fly in the window.
Even though it is many years since this soundscape was part of my daily experience, I get an undeniable nostalgia for the past for listening to this recording
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at mid or low level.
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Bjarni Jónsson ( 21. október 1881 – 19. nóvember 1965) fæddist í Mýrarholti sem var býli við Bakkastíg í Vesturbæ Reykjavíkur og voru foreldrar hans hjónin Jón Oddsson tómthúsmaður og Ólöf Hafliðadóttir. Eiginkona Bjarna var Áslaug Ágústsdóttir og eignuðust þau þrjú börn, Ágúst, Ólöfu og Önnu.
Bjarni lauk stúdentsprófi frá Lærða skólanum árið 1902 og lauk embættisprófi í guðfræði árið 1907 frá Kaupmannahafnarháskóla. Samhliða námi kenndi Bjarni við Stýrimannaskólann í Reykjavík og Kvennaskólann í Reykjavík. Haustið 1907 varð hann skólastjóri Barnaskólans á Ísafirði. Hann varð prestur við Dómkirkjuna í Reykjavík árið 1910, var prófastur í Kjarlarnesprófastsdæmi 1932-1938 og dómprófastur í Reykjavíkurprófastsdæmi frá 1945-1951. Hann varð vígslubiskup í Skálholtsbiskupsdæmi forna frá 1937 og til æviloka. Starfsferill Bjarna var langur og hann var starfandi prestur og vígslubiskup í rúmlega hálfa öld. Hann varð heiðursdoktor í guðfræði við Háskóla Íslands árið 1941 og hlaut ýmsar orður og heiðursmerki m.a. stórkross Hinnar íslensku fálkaorðu og hina dönsku Dannebrogsorðu. Bjarni var heiðursfélagi í fjölda félaga og árið 1961 varð hann heiðursborgari Reykjavíkurborgar en Bjarni þótti með þekktari borgurum Reykjavíkur og vakti athygli vegfarenda þegar hann gekk hempuklæddur milli Dómkirkjunnar og heimilis síns að Lækjargötu 12b.
Árið 1952 gafst íslenskum kjósendum í fyrsta sinn færi á því að kjósa sér forseta en fyrsti forseti Íslands, Sveinn Björnsson var þingkjörinn árið 1944 og endurkjörinn án atkvæðagreiðslu 1945 og 1949. Þrír frambjóðendur gáfu kost á sér Ásgeir Ásgeirsson, Bjarni Jónsson og Gísli Sveinsson forseti sameinaðs þings. Kosningarnar voru afar pólitískar og naut Bjarni stuðnings framsóknar- og sjálfstæðisfólks en vinstra fólk, einkum alþýðuflokksfólk studdi Ásgeir. Bjarni naut stuðnings Morgunblaðsins, málgagns Sjálfstæðisflokksins og á kjördag hvatti blaðið til þess í forsíðufrétt sinni að kjósendur myndu sameinast um Bjarna og sagði að „allir þjóðhollir Íslendingar kjósa séra Bjarna Jónsson.“ Niðurstaða kosninganna varð sú að Ásgeir Ásgeirsson var kjörinn forseti með 48,3% atkvæða en Bjarni hlaut 45,5,%. Þriðji frambjóðandinn Gísli Sveinsson hlaut 6,2% atkvæða (Wikipedia).
Það gæti talist vel við hæfi að sr. Bjarni sjái nú um predikun á netinu í Páskaviku og miðjum COVID-19 faraldri því hann var prestur í Dómkirkjuni á dögum spönsku veikinnar 1918.
Hér er á ferðini nokkuð dularfull upptaka með Bjarna því ekki er vitað hvaða ár hún var tekin upp eða af hvaða tilefni.
Upptökuna gerði Hörður Þormar, efnafæðingur frá Laufási í Eyjafirði, á segulbandstæki einhvern tíma á árunum 1955-1965.
Árið 2012 færði ég allt hans gamla spólusafn yfir á stafrænt form og gaf hann leyfi til að gera þessa upptökuna aðgengilega ef einhver gæti gefið nánari upplýsingar um hana. Það er nokkuð augljóst að tekið er upp úr LW útvarpi því heyra má öðru hverju smelli sem gætu allt eins stafað af sólvindum.
Það er ljóst að Ríkisútvarpið hefur átt og á kanski enn þessa upptöku. Það sem hins vegar er ekki ljóst, er hvenær þetta hefur verið tekið og útvapað sem varð til þess að Hörður hljóðritaði þessa predikun. Sjálfur man hann það ekki. Bjarni hætti prestskap 1951 en þá átti Hörður ekki spólutæki. Það kann hinsvegar að vera að Ríkisútvarpið hafi útvarpað þessari predikun þegar Bjarni var gerður að heiðursborgara Reykjavíkur 1961.
Ef einhver getur gefið nánari upplýsingar um þetta hljóðrit þá væri það vel þegið.
Upptakan er í tveimur hlutum því hún var á tveimur spólum.
This is an old recording which was recorded on reel to reel recorder somewhere between the years 1955-1965 from a LW radio in Iceland. It is a church sermon with pastor Bjarni Jónsson (1881-1965). He was old style priest and well known cathedral bishop in Reykjavik from early to mid last century. This recording was found on a two reels in my parents friend´s storage. There was also other old personal recordings which I helped him to digitize in 2012.
What makes this recording interesting now when Covid-19 spreads all over the world is the fact Bjarni Jónsson was a pastor of the Reykjavik Cathedral when the Spanish flu crossed into Iceland in 1918 as well all over the Western world.
It is most likely this could be the only recording with this pastor from the last century which is almost forgotten now in modern days
(mp3 192kbps / 48.3Mb)
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Látrabjarg, is a promontory and the western most point in Iceland (and Europe). The cliffs are a home to millions of birds, including puffins, northern gannets, guillemots, black legged kittiwake and razorbills. It is vital for their survival as it hosts up to 40% of the world population for some species e.g. the Razorbill. It is Europe’s largest bird cliff, 14km long and up to 440m high.(wikipedia)
This recording was made on the cliff edge in Ritugjá (Kittiwake Canyon), ca 90 meters above sea level and several hundreds meters fron Bjargtangar lighthouse. This recording contains mainly Kittiwake and chicks, also Razorbill which are mostly lower in the cliff
(mp3 256kbps / 58Mb)
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Recorder: Sound devices MixPre6
Mics: DPA 4060 Baffled / binaural
Pix: Canon EOS-M
Location: 65.499899, -24.526950
Weather: Light breeze, clear sky
Rec. date & time: 9th of June 2016, around 1am
It was a BBC article „’Worrying alarm call’ for world’s birds on brink of extinction“ which reminded me about several recordings I have made of seabirds in cliffs. This recordings are not many or interesting, but who knows how this cliffs will sound in the future when the climate change has changed or destroied the livelihood for many bird species.
So what ever about the quality of this recording is, it can be valuable in the future. Just imagine if we had been given the opportunity to record the Great Auk before it became extinct in the mid- 19th century. It would have been wonderful.
We are loosing some animal species almost every month on the planet. So it is very important to record as much as we can of the biosphere now and in the future…even though it is as likely the recordings will disappeared after several years for just „technical reason“.
„Krýsuvíkurbjarg is a wave-cut cliff that rises from the sea in the lava of Krýsuvíkurhraun.
There are many bird nests found there, approximately 60,000 pairs consisting of 9 kinds of sea birds. The black-legged kittiwak (Rissa tridactyla) is the most common one, a common migrant found in many places in Iceland. It’s population in Iceland is estimated to be about 630.000 birds, what is an interesting fact since the population of people is only 330,000 in the country! The estimated number of kittiwaks in Krísuvíkubjarg is about 21,000 birds.
Common murre (Uria aalge) is a large auk also found in Krýsuvíkurbjarg. They make no nest, their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face. Their breeding can be very tight up to 70 birds on each square meter. Interestingly, the young are considered ready to leave their nest only three weeks old, but the male bird teaches the young how to hunt in the beginning. The estimated number of the Common murre in Krýsuvíkubjarg is about 20.000 birds
There are other kinds found on the cliff, but with smaller amounts of birds.The razorbill (Alca torda), The thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia). The northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) can be found there, but is not as common as it is in Vestmannaeyjar. The European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis). The European herring gull (Larus argentatus) is there and the black guillemot or tystie (Cepphus grylle). Above the cliff edge other kinds can be found like the purple sandpiper (Calidris maritima) and The snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis).“ (discover.is)
This recording was made 11th of July 2016.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level, or in speakers at low level.
Á örfáum árum hefur ójöfnuður aukist gríðarlega á Íslandi, einkum frá aldamótum, þó upphafið megi rekja lengra aftur í tímann.
Eignir og auðlindir þjóðarinnar hafa sópast til örfárra einstaklinga. Nú er svo komið að aðeins 5% þjóðarinnar á jafn mikið og hin 95%. Ef nánar er farið út í þetta þá eiga 20% landsmanna 90% allra eigna og þar með eiga 80% landsmanna aðeins 10%.
Þessum ójöfnuði hefur verið stjórnað af orfáum ættarklíkum, eins konar Oligarch, sem hafa alla tíð komið sínu fólki til valda á Alþingi í „frjálsum“ kosningum. Það sem verra er, þeir hafa svo í gegnum tíðina komið sínu velvildarfólki í allar mikilvægar stöður í ráðuneytum og stofnunum ríkisins. Þessu fólki er svo ómögulegt að skipta út þó almenningur kjósi annað.
Þessar valdaklíkur eiga líka flesta fjölmilðana sem eru verulega litaðir af áróðri og heilaþvotti oligarkanna.
Eftir bankahrunið í október 2008 hefur spillingin í samfélaginu sífellt orðið augljósari þrátt fyrir að öllum fréttum og upplýsingum um slíkt sé haldið í lágmarki á fréttamiðlum oligarkanna. Fréttamönnum sem fara út í slikt, er sagt upp störfum eða þeir lögsóttir. Vísað er til alls kyns óljósra laga, kerfisvillna, þagnarskyldu eða málum einfaldlega ekki svarað.
En hægt og sígandi hefur spillingin samt sem áður verið dregin fram í dagsljósið. Þökk sé fólki sem hefur þor og þolinmæði til að berjast fyrir réttlæti, og vinnusömum fréttamönnum sem hafa þorað að leita sannleikanns. Samfélagsmiðlar hafa stöðugt minnt á einstök mál sem litlu óháðu fjölmiðlarnir kryfja til mergjar.
Ekki verður farið nánar út í einstök spillingarmál hér, en meðfylgjandi upptaka var tekin upp 4. apríl 2016 á mótmælum á Austurvelli þegar upp komst að þáverandi forsætisráðherra, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson og spúsa hans, höfðu tengst aflandseyjareikningum. Hann sagði svo af sér daginn eftir þessi mótmæli. Þáverandi fjármálaráðherra Bjarni Benediksson, var lika flæktur í ýmiss konar brask en að vanda slapp með ótrúlegum hætti.
Nú þegar 9 ár eru liðin frá bankahruninu þá eru valdaklíkurnar sem ollu hruninu enn við stjórn á Íslandi. Þjóðin er tvíklofin. Annars vegareru það þeir sem vilja breytingar og bætt samfélag og svo hinir, sem láta stjórnast af áróðri, yfirgangi og græðgi oligarkanna.
Upptakan er góð áminning um að íslenska þjóðin þarf nauðsynlega að takast á við breytingar. Þjóðin verður að fara að tileinka sér jafnrétti, samkennd, jöfnuð og bræðralag.
Fyrsti maí 2017 var nokkuð tíðindasamur. Farin var kröfuganga frá Hlemmi niður eftir Laugaveg á tvo útifundi niðri í bæ. Sá hefðbundni var á Hallærisplani, en hinn á Austurvelli. Var sá fundur fyrir þá einstaklinga og samtök sem hafa fengið sig fullsödd af aumingjaskap verkalýðshreifingarinnar og meðvirkni hennar með fjármagnseigendum og auðhringjum.
En það var fleira sem gerðist þennan rigningasama en merka dag. Sósialistaflokkur Íslands var formlega stofnaður í Tjarnarbíói.
Lengi má deila um hvort þörf hafi verið á því að stofna Sósialistaflokk, því fyrir er Alþýðufylkingin sem í mörgu hefur mótað sína stefu um sömu eða svipuð málefni og gildi. Það eitt að dólgar úr Sjálfstæðisflokknum höfðu ekki enn stolið nafni Sósialistaflokksins réttlætti hins vegar fullkomlega að Sósialistaflokkurinn fengi sinn sögulega sess aftur á vinstri væng stjórnmálana. Við bætist sú staðreynd að fjölbreytileikinn í pólitík er mun meiri til vinstri sem byggir á jöfnuði, sjálfbæri og valddreifingu á meðan hægri pólitík byggir sitt á ósjáfbærri, græðgisvæðingu og sérhagsmunahyggju.
Meðfylgjandi upptakan er frá stofnfundi Sósialistaflokksins í Tjarnarbíói. Troðfullt var út að dyrum og góðs stemning.
International Workers’ Day 2017
Socialism have a long history in Iceland. But that story will not been told here.
Following recording is from the establishment, (or restoration), of the Socialist party of Iceland, 1st. of May 2017. It is all in Icelandic, so if you are learning Icelandic it is worth to listen.
Wind is very often the recordist´s enemy. Especially if the rumbling noise of „hammering membrane“ is not acceptable.
Some recordists may say this rumbling noise is just normal. Everyone will hear similar rumbling noise when they stay in wind.
For me it sounds like „clipping distortion“.
Wind protection is one of the most important thing for nature recordings, especially in the country where wind below 3m/sec. is almost unique.
I have tried several wind protections. My own, Rode Blimp and Rycote Softie and Modular series. All of them sounds similar. So it was welcomed when Rycote introduced the Cyclone windshield. Cyclone have Floating Basket Suspension, which is very nice. Until now, it has been only be used in the overpriced Cinela products.
Rode NT1a is one of the best cardioid microphones available today for nature recording. But sadly it is not build for outdoor use, so it has some poor futures like handling noise.
So when I choose it on the field, it has been important to keep it in Rycote modular windshield, place it close to the ground (sadly very often too close) and pray for completely calm weather. Then pray again for nice outcome.
I per-order a pair of Cyclone mini windshield last summer and got it in mid September. My plan was to fix them with parallel MKH20/40. But I also gave my modified NT1a a try when I saw it was almost „plug and play“ to fix it .
Without fur Cyclone was not far from to be equal to Rycote modular series with fur. But when Cyclone was dressed in fur the rumbling noise almost disappeared in wind around 5-7 m/s. That was a huge success.
Following recording is a short part of overnight recording from Stafholtstungur, in the west of Iceland. The gust goes up to ca. 7m/sec. and the recorder HPF was set at 80Hz. The rig is about 1 meter above the ground.
Some rumble noise is audible in this recording, but some of it could as well be a vibration from the tripod. Keep it in mind this is NT1a which is particularly sensitive for handling noise.
I will spend more time to test this setup but it looks like I need to order another pair for my MKH20/40 rig.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level.
Hjalteyri is a small village on the western shores of Eyjafjörður, fjord in north of Iceland.
It all began when the Norwegians started salting herring around 1880 and the village Hjalteyri was confirmed by law as a trading post in 1897. Swedes, Scots and Germans would fish there in the following years but all foreigners had left by 1914.
The Icelandic fishing company Kveldulfur was active there from 1914 and in 1937 built the largest herring factory in Europe at Hjalteyri, which ran until 1966. The company also built many of the beautiful residential buildings that still stand in the village, such as the house of Thor Jensen, the founder of the company, and Asgardur, where the head of the factory lived.
The herring disappeared from the fishing grounds in the 1960s and Kveldulfur thus left as well. Fishing from small boats increased. Today, at Hjalteyri is a harbor and a small fishing industry, the drying of fish heads and aquaculture are the mainstay of the economy. During the summer months the buildings of the old herring factory are often used as a venue for art exhibitions. Around 40 people lives there today. There is also a pretty big Arctic Tern colony which brings also many other bird species to the area.
The following recording was captured in 8th of July 2015. It is 25 minutes of 6 hours long overnight recording.
This is one of my recording where I probably should have used another microphones because of the noise source in the surrounding. In this case a „fan noise“ from the factory. I use cardioid mics so the noise is only on the left side, instead of omni which would have brought the noise more to both sides and made the listening more pleasant in headphones.
So now I would recommend to listen to this recording in speakers in low-mid level, instead of headphones.
(256kbps / 46Mb)
Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mics: Rode NT1a in NOS setup
Pics. EOS-M
Location: 65.853976, -18.194666
Weather: Calm up to 4m N, almost clear sky, temp around 8-12°C
It sounds a bit stupid to record silence. But if the equipment can capture something in the silence you can not hear with your bare ears, then it can be very interesting. For instance, you never know what you will see when you look into the deep space with telescope. You never know what you will hear in the silence with a low noise microphone.
I will not define all my views of different silence, but for sure, silence is never completely quiet and it is my favourite recording material.
Best time to get „silence“ is normally during the night in calm weather after sunny day (like this one). In such moments temperature waves are also calm or in layers, so sound can travel long distances without being disturbed. Noise from one car can travel up to 30 km in open field and if you hear it with your bare ears it will be clearly audible through most quality recording gear today. Amplifying sound with low noise microphone, works like a telescope. It drags weak sound far away closer to your ears. In places where you need to hold your breath to hear probably only your heart beat, it can be a very busy place in your headphones.
But there is also other kind of silence. It is on hot sunny days when wind blows and the air is very unstable. Sound normally does not travel long distances in such circumstances.
One of these days was 18th of July 2016 on the World Listening Day. I was traveling on Kjölur, west highland route in Iceland. The sun was shining all day and the wind was blowing from the south. I took of the main rode and followed a track into Kjalhraun lava field. My plan was to find the mysterious Beinahóll (Bone hill) and the field where Reynistaðabræður (Reynisstada brothers) and almost 200 sheeps lost their lives in a insane weather in September 1780. It is still possible to find bones on this field so for a long time I have bin interested in this tragic story.
But the track through the lava was too ruff for my car so I kept on by food.
Many times for almost three decades it has been my plan to find this place while travelling by bike over Kjölur. I never did it because I was always wearing a green jacket and for superstitions reasons it has been told dangerous.
This time I did not find Beinahól. Instead I started recording the silence in the lava.
The weather was a typical sunny „midday silence“, where the thermal heat from the sun makes the air unstable so sound waves did not travel long distances.
This was one of these days I did not hear any plains or car traffic, even though Kjölur main route was not far away. When I held my breath, I only did hear weak bird song in the distance and some flies around. Because the mics are located close to the ground, you will also hear the wind wipe the ruff lava surface.
This recording is captured with MKH20 microphones and SD744 recorder. Gain was set at 56dB and HPF 80Hz. In post the gain was again raised about 25dB. Below 20Hz and above 10Khz the freq. was pulled down by 25dB.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid level, or in speakers at low level. Hold your breath while listening 🙂
(256Kbps / 46Mb)
Recorder: Sound devices 744
Mics Sennheiser MKH20 (AB40 setup)
Pics. EOS-M
Weather. Sunny, about 18°C, calm up to 3 m/s in gusts
Recording location: 64.77883, -19.42805
When I use boom in recording I have used Audio Technica BP4025 stereo mic in Rycote windshield. It is not too heavy and it gives me stereo recordings. But very often I have been disappointed with the „musical“ sound quality, so I don´t often get quality ambiance recordings with this setup. Saying that, it does not mean BP4025 is a bad mic. BP4025 has a very low noise floor. It is the perfect mic for special circumstances like where size does matter and for very quiet environment/nature recordings.
DPA4060 is a pretty sounding miniature mic, sold in pairs and much lighter than any original stereo mic on the market. That means it is perfect to use for boom recordings. But because DPA4060 is an omni mic it is necessary to separate the capsules to get stereo. It is done in two ways. Separate the capsules with space (around 40cm) to get time difference, or place them in two sides of some sonic baffle materials.
The BP4025 was in a short Rycote WS2 windshield which has overall length (wide) 34cm. So it was important to place the capsules each side of some baffle material to get acceptable wide stereo.
I end up with a simple „binaural“ project I made out of wooden leftover (see pictures).
I decided not to use silicon artificial human ears because the ears will change the frequency curve at 2,5Khz and 5,5Khz, which means I needed to fix the EQ afterwards on all recordings made with this rig.
The result was stunning. The rig I made was lighter and better wight balanced than previous BP4025 setup. The overall wight is only 750gr (mics+wood baffle+WS2 basked+fur). It also gives me wider „stereo image“. But best of all, it withstands wind- and handling noise much better than previous BP4025 setup.
Following recordings are 4 and were made in three locations. The two first one are waves on seashore, then one from a cliff, 300 m above sea level with seabirds and the last one is from a football game in Reykjavik. All where recorded on Sound devices 744.
All recordings are straight from the recorder. Just cut and paste, fade in and out and then down grade from WAV to mp3.
(256kbps / 29Mb)
The two first recordings are big and then small waves. The mic have fur, HPF is off and gain at 45db. The mics are faced from the beach to the fjords. You will hear car pass by „behind“ the mic. Notice, you will hear a short „drop out“ when it pass. It is because it passes my car which was located on the road side. See location.
In the cliff recording the mic is without fur. It is possible to hear how strong gust sounds on the Rycote basket, but that is anyway much better (or different) than the my previous BP4025 setup. HPF at 40Hz and gain at 45dB. The boom with the mic reaches the cliff edge about one meter. See location.
The last recording is from a football game celebration in downtown Reykjavik. No fur, HPF at 40Hz and gain at 40dB. The mic stood on a boom about 1 meter above the crowds head. See location.
HLJÓÐMYND - SOUNDIMAGE 