Brian House: Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World
Gruenrekorder

Interestingly, while Brian House's Everyday Infrasound in an Uncertain World is a mere twenty-four minutes (two twelve-minute vinyl sides), an entire doctoral dissertation in Philosophy could be built around it. The sound artist's field recordings project offers a perfect illustration of the Kantian principle that the world we experience using our regular modes of apprehension is but one representation. Stated otherwise, the German philosopher contended that we don't experience the world as it is “in itself,” even though we act as if we do; instead, the world assumes the shape that it does because of how we're equipped to experience and represent it. Reminding ourselves that other species—dogs an obvious example—experience the world differently than we do, even though it's physically the same one presenting itself to both, goes a long way towards convincing us of Kant's position.

And what, you may ask, does that have to do with House's recording? Well, in presenting the earth and its atmosphere to us in a way that's inaccessible under normal conditions, he too reminds us that the world is not as we take it to be. In his own words, if humans were able to “perceive frequencies lower than 20 Hz, then changing ocean currents, wildfires, turbines, receding glaciers, industrial HVACs, superstorms, and other geophysical and anthropogenic sources from across the planet would be part of the quotidian soundscape of our lives, wherever we might be.”

Admittedly, House made one critical adjustment that merits mention. The sounds on each vinyl side were collected in Amherst, Massachusetts over twelve-hour periods—six am to six pm for side one, six pm to six am for two—and then converted to twelve-minute segments. Accelerating the originating recordings raised the pitches by almost six octaves but more importantly made infrasound audible. Regular microphones aren't capable of picking up frequencies so low, so House constructed three infrasonic “macrophones” to bring long wavelengths into perceptual range. Illustration and photo images on the deluxe gatefold sleeve (300 copies) allow the listener to better appreciate how House gathered the data.

How does it sound? The “day” side unfolds as an uninterrupted, visceral flow of subterranean rumblings, convulsions, creaks, shrieks, and dive-bombing whistlings. The “night” side is even more active, with myriad creature noises adding to the soundtrack of the daylight hours. It's hard to resist hearing the sounds as ghoulish spirit vocalizations coming to us from the earth and air, their presence rendered audible through the medium of House's gear. That the physical realm outside our bodies “talks” won't come as any surprise to geologists and meteorologists who in their professions are naturally aware of and sensitive to its sounds. House's gripping sound portrait of a “planet in transition” captivates for being so unusual, unfamiliar, and thought-provoking. Had Mahler not beaten him to the punch, House could have called his recording Das Lied von der Erde for being, literally, a song of the earth.

December 2025