Alex Biscardi is a producer here at LPM, and her latest project is bringing back "Kentuckiana Sounds." The first edition is now available on lpm.org. She spoke with LPM's Bill Burton about the project.
This transcript was edited for clarity.
Bill Burton: Alex, it is great to talk with you.
Alex Biscardi: Great to talk to you too.
BB: Well, "Kentuckiana Sounds," it's pretty true to its title. It's about the sounds that you can find throughout the region, but take us a little deeper into it.
AB: So it started with a library Art Residency by Aaron Rosenblum, who was the original host, and he had his specialty in field recording. So it's basically that, it's everybody together doing field recordings to document how our area is at this time period. We take a bunch of different ones. Mine are a lot of them because it's field recordings a little niche, but we want to find the people who love to record and love to hear how things are right now and how things are gonna change.
BB: So when you're talking about field recordings or just sounds in general, what kind of sounds are you looking for?
AB: Really, anything. If you listen back through, there was things from a frog infestation to literally, somebody's refrigerator, And if you think about it, for the refrigerator that's already dated. Like, our refrigerators sound completely different now than they even sound from two five years back. Like it's it's completely different, and it really feeds into, like, our experience of life in this area at this time period, which I think is super valuable, because things change so quickly. I mean, in the last 150 years, humanity's changed the most that it's ever changed in our like, thousands and thousands of years of existence. So like having that documented and being able to show people of the future, like, Oh, hey, this is how we lived at this time. I think is a really unique experience that we really could only get now, like, we couldn't do the same thing like in the 80s, because everybody has their smartphones in their pockets. That is a recording device, so they can just go and record whatever they want. And in fact, a lot more people that I know have been doing that, and they have like, random little events that are in their life, and they're like, Hey, you remember that time that we did this? I have, like, this little recording of it, and it's it's amazing, because then we can instantly be transported back to that moment.
BB: And it's perfect for you then. So, how do these wonderful sounds come to you? How can people be involved?
AB: So, on our website, lpm.org/sounds, or kentuckianasounds.org, you can go fill out a form that'll have a space for you to put your sounds on, and you can do that on your mobile device. You can do that on your computer, wherever you want. We don't want super long things, but, we might interview you if we have something compelling there to talk about. And it can be anything or everything, like we want to hear what you're hearing. We want to hear your perspective.
BB: So you've got one under your belt for this relaunch of "Kentuckiana Sounds." What's coming next?
AB: Oh, so many different things. Some of my favorites are a soccer practice. That's really fun. There's, I go sledding, which is really cool. That was the first one that I ever did. So I'm really excited to finally get to hear it go out. Different things in our life. I hope that give a good example of what we're looking for and kind of where "Kentuckiana Sounds" is going to be going under my tutelage. I don't know if that's the right way, under under my reign. I guess reign.
