Hanoi Masters (Vietnam) 2014
The k'ni is a rare bowed instrument that is clasped between the teeth; a local dialectic language is spoken through the single string. On the k'ni, what to the uninitiated sounds like extraterrestrial, non-vocal atmospherics actually carries coded, poetic lyrics. Since there is no soundboard built into the instrument, I was puzzled as to where to place mics until the musician – mid-song, seated cross legged on the floor – pointed to the top of his head. The skull of the player itself is the resonator. This musician, Quôć Hùng, was a shy man, and each time I moved the microphones closer to him, he inched back – it was as if I were unintentionally shoving him around the room until he was ultimately cornered. Seeing this, I realized it was time to fall back on my default theory – meet people where they are; don't force them to come to you. Bring the studio to where the music is happening. If that is a parking lot, a hallway, or while they're lying on the ground and the mics are farther away than is optimal, so be it. I carry a selection of around ten microphones with me – a varying set depending on what I'll be recording. Almost always, though, everything centers around the Brauner Phantom Classic as the core lead vocal microphone. With solos, duos, and trios, whenever possible I double or triple mic each singer and instrument. The legendary John Golden of Golden Mastering mastered almost all of these Hidden Musics albums (as he has for nearly every record I've produced since I started releasing music in 1987). His son, JJ Golden, has taken over handily, following his father's retirement. With my roots as a DIY songwriter, singer, and guitarist, engineering was something that I came to out of necessity, not because I had any particular interest or knack for it. My initial segue into field recording happened accidentally, with my hosting a weekly live concert series at a San Francisco laundromat in the late-1990s. Before that and after, John Golden generously provided me with an ongoing master class every time I attended a session with him.
Khmer Rouge Survivors (Cambodia) 2015
Kong Nai ("the Ray Charles of Cambodia") is a local legend in Cambodia. Word is that parents commonly warn their children, "If you try to play like Kong Nai, you too will go blind (like him)," as a way to scare youngsters away from music so that they will hopefully follow some other, more respectable, career path instead. Kong Nai lived in the delta, and the wind was so strong the morning we were there that we were left little choice but to take shelter in the hatchback of a minivan in order to record him solo; though the Gutmann "dead cat" fur windscreens are indispensable, they're not foolproof. As amazing a musician as Kong Nai is, he was rivaled by another virtually unknown chapey dang veng (long-neck "guitar") player, Soun San. The primary hurdle in recording Soun San was that he lived in the capital’s flight path, with jet airliners almost clipping his apartment building while landing. The mics I use have evolved over time and vastly improved based on the personal suggestions of engineers that I've worked with who are worlds more talented than me. The Irish engineer David Odlum – who mixed the Grammy-winning Tinariwen album (Tassili) that we did together in 2011, and went on to mix the first half dozen Hidden Musics releases – was the one who tipped me to the off-axis sound rejection capabilities of Electro-Voice RE20 mics. I now carry two of them. These microphones have become a godsend for the volatile and unpredictable circumstances of live recording, even helping mute interference like the aforementioned jet engines. Prior to this, I'd long used Shure SM7s for the same purpose but have found that the RE20s capture more body and also are much more durable yet lighter and less bulky to carry. With a lavalier affixed to a guitar and an RE20 pointed upwards, it is possible to get good isolation for singer/instrumentalists who accompany themselves. In some cases, there is almost no bleed. Connecting the RE20s to Sound Devices MP-1 battery-powered portable preamps helps warm up the mic's tone nicely. Out of economic necessity, around 2021 I was forced to start mixing all of the albums myself that I produce and have done my best to maintain the quality level brought to these releases by David and another talented mix engineer, Craig Parker Adams, owner of Winslow Ct. Studio in Los Angeles.
Abatwa (Rwanda) 2016
When recording outdoors, leafy trees often act as resonators for the wind. Therefore, a forest can be the equivalent of a wall of Marshall stacks humming. But having musicians positioned to face the worst noise sources minimizes those unwanted sounds entering the mics. We recorded different musicians from the Abatwa people throughout Rwanda (and also briefly in Burundi) in two different dirt-road, hilltop villages and also while sheltered within the open-wall halls of a closed school. At the latter, the drilling and vehicles reversing at a factory over the fence were largely silenced by simply having the singers sing toward the noise.
