Wonderfruit extends a global open call to field recording enthusiasts for a sound installation in The Fields

We might have to wait another year until Wonderfruit 2021, but the organisers have obviously got something up their sleeves to help pass the time. Despite announcing the postponement of this year’s event to next December, homebound Wonderers in Thailand were told they’d have something to look forward to this year and teased that it would be a multi-weekend concept. Now, we can only guess that this latest project announcement about Sonic Elements might just be one part of the programme we're told they're busy preparing.

Put it this way, we know something is going to happen, and from what you're about to read, it definitely takes place on The Fields, or in the least, a part of it surely will. We can also tell you that it's going to take place over a few weekends.

Speaking of mysterious things — introducing Sonic Elements.

Sonic Elements is a new collaboration with famed radio presenter and Wonderer Nick Luscombe from Musicity, an agency that focuses on design in the realms of architecture and music with projects that cross Europe and Asia. He was involved in last year’s festival with a concept that included seven original compositions inspired by various locations around Bangkok and was performed on Theatre Stage at the 2019 chapter of the festival. The success of last years idea paved the way for his 2020 pitch. In brief, it’s a creative and collaborative effort using field recordings from people around the world that will play an integral role in a sound installation that we can only assume will take place later this year.

His most recent concept had the heads of the Wonderfruit committee turned right around again. It ticks all the boxes of a Wonderfruit experience. With the art of field recording becoming more prevalent than ever through the rise of experimental musicians and sound designers, and the only thing globalised right now being a pandemic, this project should get a warm welcome from aural pleasure seekers.

"In this extraordinarily complicated year, many of us have turned inwards to search for grounding elements, subtle mundane things and relationships taken for granted amidst the world we previously recognized," the organisers said. "Once we were slowed down we learnt to feel, see, and listen, and appreciate little matters otherwise overlooked. The sounds of natural surroundings became amplified in a silenced urbanscape. This is the backdrop for Sonic Elements: the search for one’s own sound discoveries within the system of natural elements that essentially bind all life—earth, water, fire, metal, and wood."

All the accepted submissions from participants around the world will be collated into an audio installation experience out in The Fields. And all you’ve got to do is submit a description of what your world sounds like… to you — can you tell a story about your city or habitat using just sound? How does your daily soundscape influence or inspire you?

The deadline for your descriptive submission is September 28 at 11:59pm (GMT+7) and the open call is for everyone, no matter where on the planet you are, and you can apply here. Just make sure you're available on October 6 and 7 to attend the compulsory online workshops that will be led by some of the world’s best: Nick Luscombe and James Greer from Musicity Studio, field recordists Chris Watson, Kate Carr, and Sirasar Boonma. Only 25 lucky creators will be selected before being given the next steps for going on a field recording excursion and expressing your audio-perception to the Wonderfruit community.

You’re encouraged to dive deep into your plunderphonic element for this, so make it sound.

Check out Musicity x Bangkok with Wonderfruit and Erased Tapes below.