An unexpected source of beauty
Norman W. Long finds music in nature sounds on Chicago’s Southeast Side
The world is Norman W. Long’s instrument.
Long, a composer and sound-based artist, has spent nearly 20 years producing field recordings of his environment — from the Bay Area to Chicago — all while capturing a distinct story of what it means to be a person of color in the natural world.
In September, Long released “BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN” through the Hausu Mountain label. The album is a new collection of recordings created prior to and in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While disparate in terms of when, where and how they were recorded, Long’s works tell a singular story of the Southeast Side of Chicago, an area underserved and under-recognized for its natural beauty.
Long, a Chicago native, first began field recording in 2003 while living in the Bay Area as an MFA student at the San Francisco Art Institute. Transitioning from Chicago’s Jeffery Manor neighborhood to the Bay Area contributed in part to his anxiety at the time. According to Long, after suffering through a panic attack while standing in line to get a sandwich, he decided to make a change to benefit his mental health. Long was especially inspired by a lecture he saw with the poet and activist bell hooks (the pen name for Gloria Jean Watkins) who encouraged the practice of slowing down one’s mind.
“During that time, it was more about calming myself down than anything else,” Long said. “One of the things I wanted to do in my particular practice was an affirmation of being, existing, rather than a confirmation of a particular subjugation.”
Long was interested in adding more time to just breathe and walk and develop a different relationship to his surroundings.
“You’re there and you’re present and not thinking of what has happened before or what someone thinks of you,” Long said about the benefits of field recording.
Although his field recordings were largely for fun at that time, Long began to formalize a practice of walking, recording and composing that would develop into the work he makes today.
“It’s all about being patient with myself and being a better listener,” he added. “Being open to situations and change. Being open to the circumstances that can switch in a moment.”
Long’s latest release, “BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN,” tracks what happens when situations radically change, and overnight. The first part of the release includes a recording of a performance from 2019 at Experimental Sound Studio. But later tracks on the record include new works captured during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
How does a change of this scale affect not only the sounds one hears, but the creative process for an artist?
In some ways, the pandemic had little effect on the noise of Long’s environment. Although many news stories at the time noted how the urban landscape had changed during the pandemic, Long said little changed within his Jeffery Manor neighborhood.
“There’s a train yard, there’s a landfill, there’s manufacturing. There’s things still going on. There’s Trinity Hospital and there’s a police station. All these people still had to go to work, so you’re still hearing stuff,” Long recalled. “But, at the same time, for simplicity’s sake, I’m working from home, but not working as much. It was this weird sort of thing where the sounds around the neighborhood were still the same, but I had more time to go out and record. You just had this kind of split, this tension.”
“BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN” is not for the average listener. Many may not even understand its appeal outside of the traditional boundaries of what we consider to be music. But it deserves a deeper listen, not just from those interested in field recordings.
What does life on the Southeast Side sound like? Well, according to Long, it sounds lovely and peculiar. Elements of the natural world (courtesy of Long’s frequent jaunts through Marian R. Byrnes Park’s nature preserve or the biking and skating of Big Marsh Park) blend with the mechanical, industrial soundscapes of the Jeffery Manor neighborhood.
Here, listeners can bear witness to the complexity of life in a less-discussed area of the city through dense, opaque collages of everything from chirping birds to the drop of water to static machinery. Long uses analog synths and other instruments to edit his recordings and transform them into complete soundscapes. The result is a work that hones in on the beauty, power and necessity of these spaces, all of these spaces, to tell a complete story.
“‘BLACK BROWN GRAY GREEN’ can mean a lot of things,” Long added. “Being open to the idea that it’s about black and brown communities. It can mean black and brown as the Earth or black and brown as the slag. It could mean more of an industrial meaning. Or you can see it as a process, a progress. It’s that sort of complexity that I like.” Performing 8:30 p.m. Nov. 12 on a bill with Daniel Wyche and Lake Mary at Elastic Arts, 3429 W. Diversey #208; elasticarts.org