Book exploring field recordings in electronic music, Ears To The Ground, set for release

A new book exploring the interaction of electronic music and the earth through the use of field recordings will be published later this year. 

Ears To The Ground: Adventures in Field Recording and Electronic Music will examine the relationship between electronic music artists and landscapes in the UK, Ireland and elsewhere, as well as how field recordings are a sampling tool to fold the natural world into electronic production.

Author Ben Murphy, a journalist, producer (as Bufo Bufo) and DJ Mag contributing editor, interviewed artists known for their use of field recordings such as KMRU, Flora Yin Wong, Neil McDonald (aka Lord Of The Isles), Ultramarine, Proc Fiskal, Nyokabi Kariũki, Lawrence English, Matmos, Felicia Atkinson, Oliver Ho and Leafcutter John, among others. He visited field recording-friendly environments like abandoned military test sites, remote bird colonies, estuaries, neolithic burial grounds, docklands and more.

Velocity Press will publish Ears To The Ground: Adventures in Field Recording and Electronic Music on 10th May. View the Velocity Press website for more information and pre-order.

So far in 2024, Velocity Press has announced books titled Out Of Space: How UK Cities Shaped Rave Culture and Let The Music Play: How R&B Fell In Love With 80s Synths. Also to come this year are books highlighting the evolution of electronic music in 20th century UK, Latin American women in electronic music and Questlove’s Hip-Hop Is History. The independent publisher is opening its own bookshop in Peckham at Holdrons Arcade. 

For more reading on electronic music, revisit DJ Mag’s 11 essential books list on the genre.