About The Author

MiE Fielding at the Halberstadt performance of John Cage Organ2/ASLAP

Sound Artist

MiE Fielding at St Burchardi church Halberstadt (former East Germany), photographed during the making of an ambisonic recording that forms the background to HALBERSTADT 2 /ASLSP. The finished sound art composition can be found here

ORGAN2/ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) is a musical piece by John Cage and the subject of the second-longest-lasting (after Longplayer) musical performance yet undertaken.[Cage wrote it in 1987 for organ, as an adaptation of his 1985 composition ASLSP for piano. A performance of the piano version usually lasts 20 to 70 minutes.

MiE Fielding pictured at Foyle Riding in 2024. The former home of Beatrice Harrison.

Author MiE Fielding at Foyle Riding in 2024 at the 100th year anniversary of Beatrice Harrison's famous Nightingale and cello performance. The BBC's first ever live outside broadcast. Fielding was invited to record the centenary performance for the Beatrice Harrison Trust archive.

BBC engineers photographed at the same location in 1924. Harrison's performances became well known through broadcast in the early days of BBC sound radio. In May 1924, she sat and played her cello in the garden of her house Foyle Riding at Oxted, duetting with nightingales. 'A few years later, recordings of Beatrice Harrison with the nightingales were made by His Master's Voice. These were made available on the standard 10-inch shellac gramophone discs, and proved extremely popular.

MIE Fielding on Bandcamp

Immersive

Check out the MiE Fielding Bandcamp page. There are both wildlife sound recordings, and 'Sound Art' productions. All the works on this site are generally mixed and designed for use with headphones as many are immersive and not really suited for passive 'hearing'. It has often been said that there is a huge difference between hearing and actual listening,

Sound of the Landscape

Sound of a Landscape compositions are generally recorded to an ambisonic system. We use both the Rode NTSF-1 soundfield microphone and the more portable Zoom H3VR system. The finished sound is then rendered into binaural stereo specifically designed for headphones. This gives a spatial impression as if the listener is at the location. Some compositions are recorded in wide stereo , or ORTF technique.

Poetry

The Sound of a Landscape poetry pieces are immersive sound coupled with a reading of the poetry.

Click the BANDCAMP page opposite to explore more sound.

MiE (Mike) Fielding

MiE (aka Mike Fielding) is an English avant-garde musician, sound and visual artist, ornithologist, author and photographer.

He is also known for art projects, sound art and books including, 'Aves Elektron:Death of the Nightingale', 'The Birds of Coquetdale', 'The Closest Thing to Heaven', 'The Sound of a Landscape' series, 'The River Coquet a personal view of the birds, wildlife and history', and 'Taking pictures of people taking pictures of... Art,Smartphones and Society of the Spectacle'. '. He has pursued a lifelong passion for ornithology and environmental issues, and recorded bird sounds throughout Europe. His work with sound art duo dumdum Score was featured by the legendary Bill Furlong in Audio Arts - now archived in the Tate Modern. He is an active environmental campaigner, fundraiser and RSPB species sponsor. Mike lives in Northumberland. Further sound works and publications can be found here

Book cover of MiE Fielding's 'Taking Pictures of People Taking Pictures of... Art, Smartphones and S

Taking Pictures of people taking pictures of..Art, Smartphones and Society of the Spectacle'.

MIE Fielding Amazon Author Profile

Books and Audio

Check out the MiE Fielding Amazon author page by clicking this image. There is a range of titles starting with 'The Birds of Coquetdale' published by Powdene in 1996 now out of print. If you do order from Amazon, please kindly leave a review, it will be much appreciated thank you.

The Closest Thing To Heaven

'The Closest Thing to Heaven' is a unique photographic record of the Newcastle music scene in the 1970s and 80s. Featuring a mixture of professional and amateur photos capturing the energy and DIY ethos of the bands and artists that played to the city’s loyal crowds. Despite the many social upheavals and economic recession in Britain during this period, there were still people keen to go out any night of the week. The atmosphere of this scene is captured by many of the shots taken from within the crowd of local bands such as Prefab Sprout, The Kane Gang and Arthur 2 Stroke. As well as the music, this book features some of the important venues, labels, art and people that were a major part of Newcastle’s music culture at this time. Covering various genres including post punk and electronic music, as well as more traditional rock, this photo book will bring back memories of a carefree youth that for some was ‘The Closest Thing to Heaven'.

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