Wat Analayothipyaram by Mirt • Ter
This is the eight installment in a series of albums documenting soundscapes of places that are somehow important to us (or at least interesting) and that we have managed to record during our travels.
Wat Analayothipyaram is a large temple complex. Its numerous buildings, chedis and Buddha statues lie in the shade of the trees covering the hill. It combines multiple styles, giving it a bit of the feel of an amusement park with various attractions. It is located a few kilometers outside the town of Phayao and it looks as if it was built with the big crowds visiting the town and its lake in mind.
We’re not sure, if the place has already seen better days, or is it still waiting for those crowds. When we visited, the long staircase connecting the temple to the parking with a row of buildings set up as stalls was thick with large bushes. The temple itself was in better condition and we met several Thai families at the entrance. The burning candles also indicated even more visitors and gave the entrance a slightly livelier feel, as if we had just caught a break between larger tours. Also there were some signs of maintenance works inside.
Still, wandering around the vast Wat Analayothipyaram brought back the feeling of abandonment. This feeling was reinforced by the fact that the whole place was divided into smaller individual courtyards and terraces. It looked like a shaded labyrinth. The other visitors were only present in the form of the occasional dissonant sound of large bells and the muffled beats of taiko. Some sounds were coming only from behind a hedge, and others were echoing from distant spots at the edge of the temple complex, but the recording is dominated by the static of the wind blowing through the trees and the ringing of the individual bells adorning the nearby pagoda, It seems to be a good soundtrack to what we saw there.
Tracklist
| 1. | Wat Analayothipyaram | 22:02 |
Credits
Recorded with Sound Device Mixpre3 and Sennheiser MKH8020/MKH8030 mid/side rig.
License
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Since 2014 Saamleng is a label dedicated to field recordings.
We release physical and digital albums. We are interested in soundscapes in all forms - biophony, geophony and anthropophony can be equally fascinating to us.
We do not release music. We listen to all field recording demos, but only respond if we are interested in releasing the material.