Artist Feature: Found Sounds

This artist feature focuses on artists that either use found objects or found sounds in their recordings. Usually, the term “found objects” refers to the use of items not normally used as musical instruments to make a musical sound. Think pots and pans for drums, or a branch of leaves for a shaker. Found sounds are most often sounds that already exist that you use for a recording. Think recorded crowd noises in the background or a recorded thunderstorm for a bassy boom. It’s always a challenge to see what noises can be created from found objects or what sounds are useable for a song with found sounds. Hope you enjoy these artists we have featured below.

Cenk Erdoğan & Mehmet İkiz “Lahza” give a whole new voice to one of the most important things humans need to survive: water. Listen below to the beautiful melodies created using guitar, keyboard, drums, and some creative uses of water.

Andy Sorenson and Jason Loblein not only use many different found objects, they take you on a wonderful journey through the process. Using many unconventional items and some conventional ones, Andy and Jason create an engrossing video and a delightful song.

The use of a found sound is subtle in Nicholas Rodriguez’s song “Forward,” but adds a lot of mystery and ambience to the track. He shared with us that it was a recording of kids playing in the park.

To dig deep into field recordings, there is a wonderful article you can read here from Ableton. One of our favorite field recording artists is Joshua Saddler (aka ioflow). Joshua has told us that he uses a Zoom SGH-6 Capsule Mic on a Zoom H5, which is a great tip for those of you that want to get out there and start exploring the sounds around you. I’m going to leave you with a couple of Joshua’s songs. There are many more to enjoy, so make sure to check out his soundcloud.