of field recordings, microphone placement, the individual, and the collective.
Sometimes, in a field recording, the microphone is serendipitously placed so as to create a whole new aesthetic of listening. Such is the case with Art and Margo Rosenbaum’s recording of “Let Me Fly,” by the gospel quartet of Sister Fleeta Mitchell, Rev. Nathaniel Mitchell, and Lucy Barnes.
The song, which appears on the wondrous Art of Field Recording, Vol. 1, features a marvelous trio singing the old gospel song. The performance is stellar, but what defines the recording is the way in which the microphone picks up the backup singers — Rev. Nathaniel Mitchell and Lucy Barnes — singing along with lead singer Sister Fleeta Mitchell.
We hear them listening to her. They pick up on this phrase and that, moving from replication to embellishment and back again. They are singing together and on their own; all at the same time and with different timings.
The microphone not only catches this, but accentuates this marvelous sense of simultaneous togetherness and separation. It’s a certain dynamic of singing together, which is that it also consists of singing apart.
And in the tension between the two, which the microphone absorbs and relays, captures and suspends, the musical sounds suggest a powerful way of living, a style of being both individuals and a collective.
The track is a testament both to the musicians and the recorders.
Image: Dust-to-Digital Recordings