elusive fields by jez riley french

headphones or conventional speakers will be needed to hear the full range of most of these recordings.


this collection of recordings and sound pieces explores some fragments of my work using ultrasonic detectors, coils, geophones and vlf receivers, growing areas of interest within located sound and sound art.

as a teenager I began exploring with coils when using my guitars as sound boards, hovering various devices over the pick-ups and moving the guitar towards strong power sources. Later I began using other types of coils as instruments themselves, in performance and installation - these becoming a key part of my improvisations and intuitive compositions since the 1990’s.

my first experience of ultrasonic sound was whilst listening to the echolocation of bats. Acquiring a basic detector I soon found that there was a vast array of signals that one could listen in on, and that again became part of my live performances, diffusions and installations.

geophones reveal the infrasound of locations, the low frequency hum created by the world turning or nearby vibrations. These sounds are, powerfully, subtle - connecting to our sense of place and perhaps some intrinsic sonic memory.

vlf I came to more recently (acquiring a vlf detector in 2010), through the work of researchers, scientists and my ongoing general interest in sounds not normally available to us. vlf is, basically, an audio representation of radio fall out in the magnetosphere and ionosphere, including weather events.

These sounds, along with those from coils and ultrasonic detectors, echo the crackle of vinyl and fm radio transmissions somehow - at least I believe I was drawn to them with some connections to those sonic interferences and imprints in my memory. From there, with each, I soon began micro-listening to the vast, subtle variations in the material.

please listen via headphones or conventional speakers (computer speakers will not handle some of the content or allow it to be audible)

engraved glass publishes limited edition releases by Jez riley french

. point engraved publishes limited edition releases by other artists

'a quiet position' publishes gatherings of pieces by various artists as downloadable albums

jezrileyfrench.co.uk