Recently I submitted a couple of new recordings on NTS.Radio for their Infinite Mixtape of Field Recordings. Head on over to their website to listen to some great examples of natural ambience from all over the world. I’ll be releasing my two recordings from this playlist on my Bandcamp in the weeks to come.
What field recordings would you like to hear next?
My debut album is out now and you can purchase the digital format on my Bandcamp page or stream wherever you listen to music.
As The Crow Flies was written while on a three-month long trek, boondocking through the western parts of the United States in the summer of 2020. The journey brought us face to face with wildlife in the backcountry of Yellowstone, hiking glaciers in Northern Montana, and finding the quietest places in the rainforest of the Pacific-Northwest.
Over the course of our trip I collected countless hours of field recordings, compositions, and ideas evoking the surrounding moods of the many natural and unnatural landscapes during our journey.
released April 2, 2021
produced by teddy roberts and pat benson
recorded, mixed, and mastered by marc jacob hudson
pat benson: acoustic and electric guitars, bass, synthesizers, organ, and sampling
teddy roberts: drums, percussion, acoustic guitar, cello, piano
marc jacob hudson: upright bass, synthesizers
brent allen: pedal steel
album artwork by dana cama
This was my first recording with these new Oktava microphones. It will be interesting to hear how these sound in more outdoor environments as they typically sound best in my studio or indoors.
What I like about this recording is that you can hear the subtle sounds of the sand crackling as the tides wash back into the sea. It’s a sound I hadn’t really paid close attention too before capturing this recording. I think for next time I will try and get a pair of smaller mics closer to the sand to better capture that sound.
Oktava MK012 microphones setup in ortf configuration, recorded into a Sound Devices MixPre-6 field recorder.
Recorded 3/6/21 at Point Magu State Park Beach near Port Hueneme, California.
First light is a collection of two field recordings both capturing dawn chorus – one from a campsite at Yellowstone national park in Wyoming and the other a nature preserve in Idaho during the summer months of twenty twenty.
I encourage anyone interested to use these recordings for their own music or sample any sounds they want to.
released December 14, 2020
Both tracks were recorded using a Sony PCM100 field recorder
Mixed & Mastered by Pat Benson
Photograph by Dana Cama
disclaimer: quality headphones recommended for easy listening
A Lake Made of Turquoise utilizes field recordings from Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada with improvised electric guitar, effects processing, and synthesizers while The Valley of the Coyote captures Elk bugles in a valley south of Banff in the Colorado Rockies with other ambience and sounds mixed in from both places
released August 7, 2020
Recorded by Patrick Benson | June 2019 – March 2020
Mixed and Mastered by Marc Jacob Hudson.
Photographs by Dana Cama with layout & design by Nina Hazen.
The car was packed on June 29th and we departed early the next day. There’s enough food, water, and supplies to probably last us a solid month without having to visit a store. With coronavirus cases increasing across the country, we wanted to limit our interactions as much as possible, especially in small communities near where we’ll be camping.
We stopped at a bloc, our favorite local coffee shop, to grab our final breakfast sandwich before hitting the road. (If you are ever in Highland Park and in need of a good vegan breakfast sandwich + coffee, this is the place to go.)
After 8 hours of driving through the desert, our first stop was a quick overnight in Ely, Nevada (/ˈiːli/, EE-lee), some 511 miles from Los Angeles. We arrived at Garnet Hill, our free BLM campsite for the night. After finding our site, we set up the car for sleep. Here’s the sleep setup rundown for those interested in how two people & two dogs sleep in a Subaru Outback for two months: four self inflating camping pads (doubled up for extra comfort), two 20 degree sleeping bags, two camp pillows, four window sleeves (keeps light and bugs out, lets air in), two sun shades (one on the windshield, and one on the rear windshield), one fleece blanket in each front seat for the dogs (they can’t fit in the back with us). This gets set up and taken down every night we camp, as we need the backseat for the dogs when exploring.
We’ve done tons of car camping trips before, but after our first night with this 2-month setup, I have to say that it will take some getting used to as it’s more crammed than usual. It’s something we may have to adjust as we go along.
The next morning we packed up camp and headed into Ely before continuing on. Driving out of camp, you can see huge mines everywhere you look. Ely was founded by the discovery of gold and copper in 1906. A once booming area, the population of Ely today is around 4,000 occupants. If you’re passing by on your way to Idaho it’s worth the stop to stretch your legs and grab some coffee at The Cup on Main St. The Radioshack is also worth peeking in, as it looks like a 1960’s electronics store, if only they were open.
Onwards to Idaho, where we will be spending close to a week exploring Sun Valley and the Sawtooth National Forest.
Recommended listening: “Farewell Transmission” by Songs: Ohia
Recorded on March 14, 2020, all instrumentation was improvised while listening to the first sounds of rain in many months while on my front porch, a sound we don’t hear much of in Los Angeles.
Instruments: Soma Synths Lyra 8, Roland Programmable Polyphonic Synthesizer, Model D, Cyclone Analogic TT-78
released March 29, 2020
recorded, produced, and mixed by Pat Benson.
mastered by Max Epstein
photograph by Daniel Frazier
KANANASKIS is influenced by the park system situated west of Calgary, Alberta in the Northern Canadian Rockies. With his debut track, Patrick Benson creates a dark soundscape that reflects time spent inside a vast natural surrounding. Utilizing live guitar and effects processing, looping, synthesizers, field recordings and other instrumentation to convey the feeling of change amidst beauty and darknes
released November 8, 2019
written, recorded, and produced by Patrick Benson
mixed & mastered by Max Epstein
photograph by Dana Cama
