Perceptually Ergonomic 3-Dimensional Sound for Headphones.
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Headphones are required for the effect.
Showing posts with label Rökkurró. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rökkurró. Show all posts
Friday, November 12, 2010
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Rökkurró @ Iðnó, Saturday 8pm (On-Venue)
Rökkurró @ Iðnó - Iceland Airwaves 2008 by BinauralAirwaves
Over my time in Reykjavik the frostline on the Reykjanes Mountains had dropped day after day and Saturday was the coldest day. It was crisp and clear as the temperature ducked below freezing and puddles became solid. Inside the airy and reverberant acoustics of the venue Iðnó, Rökkurró took the stage.
Iðnó during sound check:
Iðnó during sound check:
Rökkurró is currently headed on tour across Europe and will be featuring a choice selection of my ultra hi-fi binaural recordings of their Iceland Airwaves 2008 performances on a limited release special edition EP that will also include brand new songs. Check their site for info www.myspace.com/rokkurro. If you have a chance to see them: do not miss it!
Aaron
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Rökkurró @ Mál og Menning (Off-Venue)
Rökkurró @ Mál og Menning (Off-Venue) - Iceland Airwaves 2008 by BinauralAirwaves
The manikin taking in the scene from across the bookstore before the performance started:
Rökkurró
Off-venue: Mál og Menning (Language and Culture) Bookstore
Reykjavik, Iceland
2008, October 15, 17:00
Binaural Recording Info:
Microphone Setup: Ultra Hi-Fi Binaural Manikin Head
Master Recording Format: 5.6MHz/1bit Direct Stream Digital
This was Rökkurró's first performance of Airwaves and the first official show I heard of the Iceland Airwaves festival. It was an "off-venue" show that was free to anyone, as opposed to the "on-venue" shows which required the Iceland Airwaves Pass.
Off-Venue Shows=Short and Sweet:
The off-venue shows were all around Reykjavik in nice little spaces like record shops, cafes, and bookstores. There were so many concerts happening at the same time in different places that there was naturally a ton of running around to catch all the shows that you wanted to hear. It was impossible to not miss good music since there was so much. It kind of felt like a real world incarnation of hitting "Scan" on your radio and getting all of these little glimpses of different bands in a short amount of time.
I'm used to 1 hour sets minimum in the US with a pretty big chunk of setup time in between bands. However, the off-venue shows were typically only about 25-30 minutes which is really short in my mind. It worked amazingly well though. Many bands had an at least one off-venue show and then an on-venue show. So, sometimes you might have only been able to catch an act off-venue because their on-venue performance overlapped with another group you wanted to see only but had that one on-venue performance. It seemed a daunting task at first but it worked out quite well.
A close up of the band obscured by a cool looking light fixture and tons of other stuff:
The Scene:
Rökkurró had a great turn out and played quite well. This concert was in Mál og Menning, a bookstore who's name translates to "Language and Culture". It's located on the main drag of Reykjavik: Laugervegur. It should be interesting to compare the acoustics/ambiance of this performance to Rökkurró's 12 Tónar off-venue performance (and soon to their Iðno on-venue performance after I post it).
As you can see from the photos, I'm way across the room at the top of the stairs. I wanted to capture the acoustics of the large room by being away from the group and give the sensation of standing in the crowd, like you would have been doing if you had been there.
Some things to listen for:
Aaron
Rökkurró
Off-venue: Mál og Menning (Language and Culture) Bookstore
Reykjavik, Iceland
2008, October 15, 17:00
Binaural Recording Info:
Microphone Setup: Ultra Hi-Fi Binaural Manikin Head
Master Recording Format: 5.6MHz/1bit Direct Stream Digital
This was Rökkurró's first performance of Airwaves and the first official show I heard of the Iceland Airwaves festival. It was an "off-venue" show that was free to anyone, as opposed to the "on-venue" shows which required the Iceland Airwaves Pass.
Off-Venue Shows=Short and Sweet:
The off-venue shows were all around Reykjavik in nice little spaces like record shops, cafes, and bookstores. There were so many concerts happening at the same time in different places that there was naturally a ton of running around to catch all the shows that you wanted to hear. It was impossible to not miss good music since there was so much. It kind of felt like a real world incarnation of hitting "Scan" on your radio and getting all of these little glimpses of different bands in a short amount of time.
I'm used to 1 hour sets minimum in the US with a pretty big chunk of setup time in between bands. However, the off-venue shows were typically only about 25-30 minutes which is really short in my mind. It worked amazingly well though. Many bands had an at least one off-venue show and then an on-venue show. So, sometimes you might have only been able to catch an act off-venue because their on-venue performance overlapped with another group you wanted to see only but had that one on-venue performance. It seemed a daunting task at first but it worked out quite well.
A close up of the band obscured by a cool looking light fixture and tons of other stuff:
The Scene:
Rökkurró had a great turn out and played quite well. This concert was in Mál og Menning, a bookstore who's name translates to "Language and Culture". It's located on the main drag of Reykjavik: Laugervegur. It should be interesting to compare the acoustics/ambiance of this performance to Rökkurró's 12 Tónar off-venue performance (and soon to their Iðno on-venue performance after I post it).
As you can see from the photos, I'm way across the room at the top of the stairs. I wanted to capture the acoustics of the large room by being away from the group and give the sensation of standing in the crowd, like you would have been doing if you had been there.
Some things to listen for:
- The women speaking in Icelandic directly to the left (literally right next to the manikin)
- Espresso machine ~8m to the left.
- People chating and drinking coffee in the cafe seating area in back and to the left.
- Something I thought was kind of funny happened near the end of Ferðalangurinn where this older woman walked up the stairs and we had this exchange:
She seemed to ask this same question in Icelandic to me and I gave a confused look back and she switched to English...
Woman: How long is this going, do you know that? How long is this going, do you know that?
Aaron: I think about another 20 minutes.
Woman: Ok [snicker], then I'm leaving.
What a hater haha. Though, I guess if you're into browsing books you wouldn't be so keen on tons of people blocking all of the books while they check out a cool concert.
Anyhow, it was indeed a great concert.
Aaron
Monday, November 10, 2008
Rökkurró @ 12 Tónar Record Store (Off-Venue)
And now the band that is responsible for me going to Iceland Airwaves in the first place. Those bastards...
Rökkurró playing inside 12 Tónar (ultra hi-fi binaural manikin head in foreground):
Rökkurró:
www.myspace.com/rokkurro
Album: Það kólnar í kvöld...
This quintet melds warm contemplative candlelit dynamics with jazzy syncopated tapestries as they swap instruments and create interesting contrasts of mood, often sounding more cinematic ensemble than rock quintet.
Meaning of the Name "Rökkurró":
For those of us who don't speak Icelandic it might seem their name is merely some Icelandified version of "Rockers" or something like that. Though, this is not even close. In fact, "Rökkurró" is the combination of 2 Icelandic words with much deeper meaning:
Rökkur (sunset / twilight) + ró (quiet / calm) = Rökkurró
This basically describes the time of day when the sun is setting and everything seems calm and relaxed.
How apt: I couldn't believe how perfectly fitting a title this seemed to be for their unique sound after thinking it was some derivative of "Rock___" for so long.
Impressions of the Rökkurró Sound:
Indeed, like a setting sun, the bright warm vocals seem to cast beautifully long winter shadows, with their internal dialogue of swooning cello, while conversing with the rich smoldering accordion lines. These tender but elegantly reasoned lines seamlessly mesh with the integral guitars that vary from tonally rich chords and arpeggiation to jazzy-surf counterpoint and even ethereal textures that all sum to create the underlying harmonic backbone-often adorned with sweet glockenspiel.
Bonding these elements together is the sleek dark bass that is at once exacting and particular in highlighting the overall harmonic direction and relating it to the often nuanced syncopation of the unifying percussion that cleverly reminds: the drum set is indeed a melodic instrument. The carefully crafted drum patterns ebb and flow-sometimes recursive and subtly phased while, at other times, Rock. While there are legions of groups who anchor their paradigm on shock, Rökkurró have somehow reinvented awe.
Reykjavik - Clearing Thursday Weather:
The Scene:
The cozy space in 12 Tónar was packed wall-to-wall. People overflowed to the entry stairs but, listening to the recording, you'd probably think there was no crowd at all because everyone was so quiet and attentive. The set list includes songs from their release Það kólnar í kvöld... (English: "There's a chill in the air tonight...") as well as a new song. I would highly recommend checking this album out: you will not be disappointed.
Rökkurró
Off-venue: 12 Tónar (best record shop ever)
Reykjavik, Iceland
2008, October 16, 17:00
(Use Headphones for All Recordings)
Iceland Airwaves 2008 - Rökkurró at 12 Tónar by BinauralAirwaves
Binaural Recording Info:
Microphone Setup: Ultra Hi-Fi Binaural Manikin Head
Master Recording Format: 88.2kHz/24bit
This is chronologically out of order with the rest of my posts but I couldn't resist since it was easily one of my favorite Iceland Airwaves concerts plus I have 2 other concert recordings of Rökkurró. So, I figured I'd spread them out.
I hope you'll enjoy rehearing their 12 Tónar concert as much as I have. As I said, Rökkurró and their music are really responsible for drawing me to Iceland to make these recordings. And since I have enjoyed their music so much I am compelled to give a heartfelt personal stamp of approval and recommendation for their album because it is really quite sublime. Check it out: Það kólnar í kvöld...
Aaron
Rökkurró playing inside 12 Tónar (ultra hi-fi binaural manikin head in foreground):
Rökkurró:
www.myspace.com/rokkurro
Album: Það kólnar í kvöld...
This quintet melds warm contemplative candlelit dynamics with jazzy syncopated tapestries as they swap instruments and create interesting contrasts of mood, often sounding more cinematic ensemble than rock quintet.
Meaning of the Name "Rökkurró":
For those of us who don't speak Icelandic it might seem their name is merely some Icelandified version of "Rockers" or something like that. Though, this is not even close. In fact, "Rökkurró" is the combination of 2 Icelandic words with much deeper meaning:
Rökkur (sunset / twilight) + ró (quiet / calm) = Rökkurró
This basically describes the time of day when the sun is setting and everything seems calm and relaxed.
How apt: I couldn't believe how perfectly fitting a title this seemed to be for their unique sound after thinking it was some derivative of "Rock___" for so long.
Impressions of the Rökkurró Sound:
Indeed, like a setting sun, the bright warm vocals seem to cast beautifully long winter shadows, with their internal dialogue of swooning cello, while conversing with the rich smoldering accordion lines. These tender but elegantly reasoned lines seamlessly mesh with the integral guitars that vary from tonally rich chords and arpeggiation to jazzy-surf counterpoint and even ethereal textures that all sum to create the underlying harmonic backbone-often adorned with sweet glockenspiel.
Bonding these elements together is the sleek dark bass that is at once exacting and particular in highlighting the overall harmonic direction and relating it to the often nuanced syncopation of the unifying percussion that cleverly reminds: the drum set is indeed a melodic instrument. The carefully crafted drum patterns ebb and flow-sometimes recursive and subtly phased while, at other times, Rock. While there are legions of groups who anchor their paradigm on shock, Rökkurró have somehow reinvented awe.
Reykjavik - Clearing Thursday Weather:
The cozy space in 12 Tónar was packed wall-to-wall. People overflowed to the entry stairs but, listening to the recording, you'd probably think there was no crowd at all because everyone was so quiet and attentive. The set list includes songs from their release Það kólnar í kvöld... (English: "There's a chill in the air tonight...") as well as a new song. I would highly recommend checking this album out: you will not be disappointed.
Rökkurró
Off-venue: 12 Tónar (best record shop ever)
Reykjavik, Iceland
2008, October 16, 17:00
(Use Headphones for All Recordings)
Iceland Airwaves 2008 - Rökkurró at 12 Tónar by BinauralAirwaves
Binaural Recording Info:
Microphone Setup: Ultra Hi-Fi Binaural Manikin Head
Master Recording Format: 88.2kHz/24bit
This is chronologically out of order with the rest of my posts but I couldn't resist since it was easily one of my favorite Iceland Airwaves concerts plus I have 2 other concert recordings of Rökkurró. So, I figured I'd spread them out.
I hope you'll enjoy rehearing their 12 Tónar concert as much as I have. As I said, Rökkurró and their music are really responsible for drawing me to Iceland to make these recordings. And since I have enjoyed their music so much I am compelled to give a heartfelt personal stamp of approval and recommendation for their album because it is really quite sublime. Check it out: Það kólnar í kvöld...
Aaron
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Árni and Hildur, Your Families, and Rökkurró: Þakka þér fyrir!
Firstly, before any binaural recordings from Iceland Airwaves 2008 are heard, it is my pleasure to thank my extraordinarily amazing hosts Árni and Hildur of Rökkurró and their most hospitable families for not only making my trip/binaural recording possible but hugely memorable. Árni was key in convincing me that I had to make a pilgrimage to Iceland Airwaves and, throughout my entire stay in Iceland, Árni and Hildur and their families made me completely forget that I was traveling because I simply felt at home.
Many thanks are also due to the entire Rökkurró band for lots of great music in rehearsal and concert and many good times all week. You are all great musicians and hearing you guys play was a true highlight of the trip. Plus you guys totally made my day by playing Dagur Þrjú (Track 9 on their album Það kólnar í kvöld... english: "There's a chill in the air tonight...").
So, to Árni and Hildur, your families, and Rökkurró...
Many thanks are also due to the entire Rökkurró band for lots of great music in rehearsal and concert and many good times all week. You are all great musicians and hearing you guys play was a true highlight of the trip. Plus you guys totally made my day by playing Dagur Þrjú (Track 9 on their album Það kólnar í kvöld... english: "There's a chill in the air tonight...").
So, to Árni and Hildur, your families, and Rökkurró...
Þakka þér fyrir!
-Aaron
-Aaron
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