There are many ways that you might create a soundscape using found sounds or field recordings. Sounds can be edited to give the impression of a real place even though they may have been recorded all over the world and in different times. An edit might give the impression of being part of a dream, or a kind of memory. Sounds can be more roughly edited (cut-up) to give a jumpy feel that might suggest a quick passage of time or an agitated point of view.
Here are a few examples.
Drowned by Justin Bennett – 2007
Justin Bennett is an artist that uses field recording as a primary source of material. This work is created from sounds recorded in Istanbul Turkey.
Drowned
Wire Recorder Piece – Halim El-Dabh 1944
Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (Arabic: حليم عبد المسيح الضبع (Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍabʻ); born March 4, 1921) is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades. He is particularly known as an early pioneer of electronic music, for having composed in 1944 the first piece of electronic tape music, specifically an electroacoustic musique concréte piece, and later for his influential work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center from the late 1950s to early 1960s.
William S. Burroughs – Cut ups Early 1960’s
The writer Burroughs and the painter Bryon Gysin followed in the footsteps of the dadaists and surrealists by using a kind of “automatic” method of chopping up and assembling text, film, or sounds. they called this the CUT-UP. The version below uses radio news as a source.
More info here: https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/burroughs-cutup.html
Chris Watson – El Divisidero 2011
Using archive and field recordings, Chris Watson recreates a passenger ride across the country on a line that no longer exists. It’s been more than a decade since the last service operated by the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (FNM). Watson spent a month on board one of the trains as a sound recordist working with a film crew documenting a BBC TV series on Great Railways Journeys. The atmospheres captured with sensitive microphones in the country reveal the environment at its most open, intimate and natural setting. An additional post-production of looping train samples, turns this mere field recording into a mesmerizing trip. This is more than just a sound portrait lifted off a television show. Watson composes a cinematic narrative bringing the listener (and the observer) into a setting unattainable alone.
