The forlorn, hypnotic sound of foghorns echoing over San Francisco Bay, recorded in 1981 by the pioneering environmental sound artist BILL FONTANA. It's an artifact of a bygone era: the fog horns are still there, but as an aid to navigation they've mostly been replaced by GPS. Fortunately, Fontana's work has now been memorialized in a deluxe CD edition from the Bay area New Music label Other Minds Records. It makes a lovely souvenir of foggy, hypothermic summer nights in San Francisco.
As an atmospheric phenomenon, fog has been with us since the earth cooled enough for water vapor to condense into tiny droplets that float on air. For humans, fog reduces visibility and makes it difficult, even dangerous, to move around; on the plus side, fog creates subtle monochromatic dreamworlds of endless beauty and fascination for both visual artists and ambient musicians.
On this transmission of Hearts of Space, chilled, soft-focus, atmospheric dreamworlds...on a program called WINTER FOG. Music is by BILL FONTANA, INGRAM MARSHALL, BRIAN ENO, JEFF GREINKE, MICHAEL BRÜCKNER, and ROBERT RICH.
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Saturday January 16th'21. Here we find another happy tidbit exemplar of Stephen's eclectic sense of humor, if not also, music. I don't have much of an "ear" for harmony or in-tune & on-time, so the horns will go on un-critique'd. My first experience at that S.H. sense was with drawling litt'l Stevie Hill, in "Slim Westerns 496," and another Prog-Name now unremembered. Thus, I speak from some experience. I just now clicked on Toggle-Repeat for more Fog Horns. Might go on for hours at that rate. While it's a heavy overcast here in central Iowa, I'm not going out anywhere, but it helps to know if I did: when lit, "red on right, returning". And maybe: Horn on left (oops, port), returning? (I should make more comments like this occasionally.)
Posted by: RJ Gardner | 16 January 2021 at 03:15 PM
Actually, it was "... litt'l Stevie Ray Hill,..." as I suddenly reappear amid the thick fog of mind like a pulsar star, to edit myself in this post-illucidated moment. (I had a hunch I'd be back. And I don't terminate anything; can termin what ain't been had.)
Posted by: RJ Gardner` | 16 January 2021 at 10:14 PM
I grew up with a view over the Bay to SF and foghorns were a common thing for me in the late 50s and the 60sl Hearing this gives me childhood memories of late, cold nights and wonder at the creatures of imagination.
There's an old Science Fiction story about an ancient deep sea monster that is awakened by a foghorn, and when it finds out it is a machine and not a mate, destroys the lighthouse.
There was a distinctive solo deep foghorn recording that was the iconic ID sound for KFOG when it was a big band radio station station in Ghirardelli Square. BEEE-ooooh.
I can find the story online but that foghorn has been elusive. Maybe the sea mnster got it.
Posted by: Lou Judson | 30 January 2021 at 04:16 AM