Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World | Brian House
Gruen 228 | Vinyl (+ Digital) | Digital > [order – November 7, 2025]
Orders inside of US please go through Bandcamp
Album release party 10/30 at Fridman Gallery, NYC
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Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World
Even though you can’t hear it, infrasound fills the air. And because the atmosphere doesn’t absorb it like regular sound, infrasound comes from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. If humans could perceive frequencies lower than 20 Hz, then changing ocean currents, wildfires, turbines, receding glaciers, industrial HVACs, superstorms, and other geophysical and anthropogenic sources from across the planet would be part of the quotidian soundscape of our lives, wherever we might be.
I made this recording in the small town of Amherst, Massachusetts. I sped it up by a factor of 60: 24 hours becomes 24 minutes, raising the pitch by almost six octaves and making infrasound audible. Although we might think we hear something familiar when listening to this album, only its very highest sounds could have been detected with an unaided ear.
Since ordinary microphones cannot pick up frequencies this low, I constructed infrasonic “macrophones.” If a microphone amplifies small sounds, a macrophone brings large sounds with long wavelengths into our perceptual range. Each consists of a wind-noise reduction array leading to a microbarometer and a data recorder. I based the design on what the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization uses to detect distant warhead tests. In this case, however, we’re listening to a planet in transition.
This work germinated in Oregon amid an unprecedented season of wildfires. It developed along with my chronic illness, Lyme, a tick-borne disease that has become more common as a result of warming winters. My young son watched over the recording process; our ancestors mined coal. For me, it’s not just a matter of hearing what is novel to the human ear, but of encountering those agencies greater than our own that connect us through the atmosphere.
Side A – Day, 6am–6pm [12:00] | MP3
Side B — Night, 6pm–6am [12:00]
2 Tracks (24′00″)
Vinyl (300 copies)
3 macrophones placed equilaterally at 100 ft
Pressure range: +-25 Pa (0.001 Pa / 0.01 s)
Recording samples per second: 100 Hz
Wavelengths captured: 28.12–4,658.79 ft
Measured frequencies: 0.25–40 Hz
Playback frequencies: 15–2,400 Hz
Lon/lat: -72.506248333,42.367743333
…as ominous as these sounds can be, they arrive with an immense sense of beauty and wonder…an unparalleled love letter to planet earth in the liminal space where science and art collide. — Everything is Noise
Concept, construction, programming, and audio production: Brian House. Mastering: Jon Cohrs. Design: Partner & Partners. Illustration: Lincoln Nemetz-Carlson. Studio assistance: Zac Watson, Andrew Kim, Ziji Zhou. With support from: Creative Capital, Amherst College, J & K Altman Foundation. Thanks: Ethan Clotfelter, Ben Holtzman, Leif Karlstrom, Theun Karelse, Lucia Monge, the art department at Lewis & Clark, and the Columbia Center for Spatial Research.
Field Recording Series by Gruenrekorder
Germany / 2025 / Gruen 228 / LC 09488
Rigobert Dittmann | Bad Alchemy Magazin (131)
Zitat: Wenn der Mensch Frequenzen unter 20 Hz wahrnehmen könnte, wären Veränderungen der Meeresströmungen, Waldbrände, Turbinen, zurückweichende Gletscher, industrielle Klima- und Lüftungsanlagen, Superstürme und andere geophysikalische und anthropogene Quellen auf der ganzen Welt Teil der alltäglichen Geräuschkulisse unseres Lebens, wo immer wir uns auch befinden. BRIAN HOUSE legt damit die Basis für Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World (Gruen 228, LP). Mit in Amherst, Massachusetts, mit ‚Macrophones‘ eingefangenem Infraschall bei Tag – ‚Day, 6am–6pm‘ [12:00] – und bei Nacht – ‚Night, 6pm–6am‘ [12:00]. Wobei er die 24 Stunden auf zweimal 12 Minuten gerafft hat. Das ergibt eine wie geträumte Phonographie aus schlurchenden Schüben von dumpf dröhnenden Klangwolken, glissandierenden Strichen und flötenden Lauten mit einem Anklang von EVP, von ‚paranormalen Tonbandstimmen‘, oder von Walgesang. Eine heimliche und merkwürdig zarte Musik, die die Welt da für sich macht. Dabei geht es House, der am Amherst College Kunst lehrt, um den Climate Change, der auch da stattfindet, wo man es nicht ’sieht‘ und ‚hört‘. Mit „Animas“ (2016) hat er den katastrophalen ‚2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill‘ thematisiert, mit „Terminal Moraine“ (2021) die Gletscherschmelze und unser fehlendes Zeitgefühl, mit „Post-Natural Pastorale“ (2022) New Yorks Freshkills Park als renaturierte Mülldeponie. Man sollte auf ihn hören.
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