Point Pelee was produced by Ayaz Kamani. It was edited by Jess Shane.
Ayaz says:
A friend and I went to record birds at Point Pelee in Ontario. One morning, amidst our 5 am grogginess, all the birds exploded to life simultaneously, like someone was conducting them. Like they were all conducting each other. It was beautiful, symphonic.
Naturally, we tried to record it the next morning, and even more naturally than our urge to try to record it the next day, it didn't happen. So that was hilarious. We come with all this equipment, and the most amazing sonic experience, we missed. It felt like a prank - like the birds were doing a very good prank.
I decided to try to capture that moment post-mortem. I began the painstaking and enjoyably obsessive task of resurrection. And it was very difficult. I used recordings from Point Pelee as a blanket or a bandaid to help nurture the memory from its palliative state, because it's was degrading and morphing from its original state. Those Point Pelee recordings were like touchstones, and the closest thing that I had to documentation of that experience, but the vast majority of the sounds used in the piece were sound effects from a library.
I've been cutting a lot of background sound effects lately for visual media. In this field, you're manufacturing what's natural. I've said to myself often, 'oh this isn't natural.' Yet when all the birds came together in such a rare musical way, I thought about how although this movement is part of nature, it’s considered unnatural, or feels unnatural, if it’s not in service the story being told by the visual images, or of the dialogue. Background sound always must be isolated, controlled so that nothing competes with the story.
What I create through sound design is a false representation of nature, but a constant reminder that it exists, because you're like ‘oh shit this room, no one's going to believe this room if there is no air and room tone.’ So you have to put all this stuff in to sell the room. You're always walking a fine line.
While making this piece, I thought a lot about where my urge to recreate this moment at Point Pelee really came from. What evolutionary need does it serve?
Inspiring Ayaz in sound and beyond:
The sound of the hotel room door in the movie Barton Fink, but more than that, people at work and listening to the city while walking. I'm not sure, maybe everything, and everybody, so I guess nothing specific except for trees.
Ayaz Kamani is an artist and sound designer, primarily for film, based in Toronto.
“I was born in Winnipeg, but only lived there for six months as a child before moving to Vancouver, so I can't truly call my self a Winnipegger. But sometimes when I feel insecure about my Canadianity due to certain questions, I clearly state that I was born in Winnipeg. Not sure where I'm going to die though, ideally on a spit of sand while a lazy tide tickles my feet, and a sand flea drinks sweat from my belly button. Currently, work-wise, I edit sound, conform dialogue, type out ADR scripts and complete a litany of post production tasks for television and movies.”
Ayaz Kamani is an artist and sound designer, primarily for film, based in Toronto.
“I was born in Winnipeg, but only lived there for six months as a child before moving to Vancouver, so I can't truly call my self a Winnipegger. But sometimes when I feel insecure about my Canadianity due to certain questions, I clearly state that I was born in Winnipeg. Not sure where I'm going to die though, ideally on a spit of sand while a lazy tide tickles my feet, and a sand flea drinks sweat from my belly button. Currently, work-wise, I edit sound, conform dialogue, type out ADR scripts and complete a litany of post production tasks for television and movies.”