Alaï y las Marionetas at the Audubon Center
The birds are singing, the skies are blue, and we’ll see you in the shade of our magical peppercorn tree friend within the Audubon Center at Debs Park for a donation-based afternoon of art and ecological attunement featuring our friends of the Los Angeles Field Recording Club.
Now one year old, the Los Angeles Field Recording Club is a bi-weekly meetup dedicated to the art of listening and environmental sound. From Leo Carillo State Park to the Americana, the Huntington Library to Union Station, this club of deep listening enthusiasts have been playfully tuning into and documenting soundscapes of the Southland and we’re simply inspired and enchanted watching this ensemble of recordists archive our beloved city.
Founded by our friend George Jensen, one of LA’s great artists / adventures / dj’s / co-conspirators / heroes of keeping shit real, LAFRC is open for all people of all skill levels and experiences and is a phenomenal place to be if you’re interested in exploring more of LA, learning about soundscape ecology, or just want to try something new and meet some kindred spirits along the way.
As acoustic ecologist R. Murray Schafer wrote about so often and eloquently, “the soundscape of the world is changing,” and through the work of organizations like World Soundscape Project and the more recent Natural Sounds & Dark Skies Division of the National Parks Service, it’s long been essential to document the sonic properties of this planet. Over the decades soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause has - through his ongoing field recordings - documented the displacement of species due to the imperialist spread of industrial sound (think air traffic through a once quiet forest) & here at home the sounds of our mountains have changed with encroaching development as with the sound markers of our neighborhoods due to processes like rapid gentrification, climate disaster, or the unregulated expansion of businesses like Airbnb in our communities.
It’s serendipitous that our gathering this month lands on World Listening Day, also R. Murray Schafer’s birthday, and we’re chatting through a very special listening session and performance with members of the club that highlights their adventures and advocacy of the past year. More info to come.
Bring a blanket, a picnic, and pull up with us.
All ages & donation based!
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a gentle reminder: please leave your adorable pups at home this afternoon as to not disrupt the Audubon Center’s ongoing habitat restoration efforts.
For 20+ years the Audubon Center at Debs Park has been a beacon for how conservation organizations can work within our cities to cultivate a deeper relationship between people and place. Through monthly hikes, restoration days, bird walks, field trips, movie nights, community festivals, and hosting gatherings like these each and every month, the Audubon Center at Debs Park has played an essential role in building a more diverse and inclusive conservation movement here in Los Angeles.
We’re so grateful for the humans of the Audubon Center, the advocacy that they champion in dialogue with local culture and native ecology, and it is an absolute honor to gather here together on the 3rd Saturday of (almost) every month.