“Ear of Wheat” and “Cracking Clay” are part of a (non-exhaustive) video series exploring sonic activations carried out in the heart of the Gorafe Desert. During my last journey, I was immersed in a landscape that was both motionless and silent. Capturing sound proved to be a challenge: the slightest movement or breath would disturb the recordings. Listening to the desert is a unique exercise, dominated by wind and distant echoes.

Faced with this difficulty, I had the idea to produce sounds myself, with the aim of revealing the tangible materiality of the place. These interventions, which I describe as “ecological ASMR forms,” are part of a broader visual and sonic archive, enriched throughout our long walks in the desert. The intimacy of the sounds produced plays a central role in this work, which also questions the practice of field recording.

Indeed, after long periods of waiting and listening to the “everyday life” of the arid canyons, variations began to emerge: the sudden cry of a bird, the collapse of a rock, or the whisper of a distant spring. Our sonic gestures thus complement this endemic soundscape and offer a new way to listen to and perceive the place.

Directed and edited by: Laure Subreville
Sound recording by: Guillaume Cassagnol