The hurricane Dagmar hit the west coast of Norway on Christmas Day. The epicentre passed further north, but it was still windy in the evening and night. Sotra is next to the North Sea, and over the past month we have had a steady flow of low pressures with strong wind and rain.
The sound recording is done outdoor at the back side of our house early in the evening, as the storm is approaching. It is difficult to prevent wind and rain from hitting the microphone, and I end up close to the wall at the back side of the house, sheltered by the ceiling. While recording, it occurs to me that maps are unable to say anything meaningful about what this place is like. Maps capture what is static and frozen, the rock, but here the environment more than anything else is dominated by the weather, a dynamic system rich on energy and eternally changing.
It’s less like an object and more like the weather – John Cage
Sound levels drift, most of the time within the 74 to 86 dB range, according to my cell phone. The recording can be downloaded at Freesound.org.