LAT: Recording the sounds of the West

[Heidi]

University of Utah researcher Jeff Rice sets up sound-recording equipment in the
early-morning hours at Range Creek.

Two archivists aim to catalog the soundscapes of Western states -- birds, rattlesnakes, bats -- before the racket of modern life drowns them out.

September 4, 2009

Reporting from Range Creek, Utah - A synthesized cellphone melody pulls Jeff Rice from his sleep.

De-de da-de-de da-de-de da-de. De-de da-de-de da-de-de da-de.

<snip>

Once a private ranch, Range Creek was opened to the public in 2004, and it is a carefully protected, isolated sliver of land just shy of the Green River and Desolation Canyon, hidden behind a fortress of rock known as the Book Cliffs. As Rice knows, isolated means quiet, and quiet -- or more precisely, sounds without the interference of man-made noise -- means endangered.

He gets behind the wheel; Arlitsch rides shotgun. Beyond the ranch complex, the Trailblazer prowls down a washed-out and rutted road.

They call their project the Western Soundscape Archive, a digital database of sounds managed and organized by the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library. By title, they are both librarians, Arlitsch typically working behind a desk, managing technology for the project, and Rice spending time in the field, using his equipment like a photographer uses a camera: to hold on to a fleeting moment.

But instead of images, Rice collects sounds caught in the brief intervals of modern life before the cacophony of airplanes and jets, air conditioners and automobiles, music machines and gardening equipment kicks in.

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[Heidi]

1. Kick for this cool project.

:kick: