Voices From the Earth Chronicles Vault

The Earth Chronicles Voicescape Series

Tales of Creation & Don’t Ask What a River is For

David Kattenburg

Between the winter of 1992 and spring of 1994, backpack on my back and a vintage, analog Nagra III reel-to-reel tape recorder over my shoulder, I traveled back and forth across Canada – twice — visiting special places and speaking with interesting people from Prince Edward Island to the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Vintage 1967 mono Nagra III

Out of this audio-recording adventure, thirty-two hour-length docs emerged, exploring planet Earth, global ecology, and sustainable human endeavour, and introducing listeners to some of Canada’s most special natural spots.

The Earth Chronicles, the series was called. Co-producer Peter Hutton and I raised an astonishing $120,000 for the radio project (equivalent to about $220,000 dollars today).

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Producing the Earth Chronicles was a task of epic proportions. In a room at a student abode called the Yellow Brick House, on Strathcona Street South (no longer there), countless hours were spent listening back to all these voices, on dozens and dozens of reels of analog, quarter-inch tape; wax pencil and razor blade in hand, slicing, splicing, sequencing, and assembling sequences; lengths of magnetic tape around my neck, over my shoulder and knees, and piled up neatly across the floor.

Across town, in the production studio of 93.3 CFMU, McMaster University Radio, I pumped out thirty-two editions of the Earth Chronicles, all perfectly narrationless. Voicescapes. Here are two episodes in the Earth Chronicles series — ‘Tales of Creation’ and ‘Don’t Ask What a River is For’.

In ‘Don’t Ask What a River is For’, in order of appearance:

Kevin Van Tighem (Alberta)
Gaby Villeneuve (Tadoussac)
John Joe Sark (PEI)
Denis Trottier (Lac St. Jean)
Pat and Chuck Potter (Grand River)
Mike McIvor (Jasper)
Ben Gadd (Jasper)
David Schindler (Edmonton)
Hal Hinds (Fredericton)
Remy Kurtness (Lac St. Jean)
Chris Newton (Brandon)
Joe Dolecki (Brandon)
Mae Burrows (Vancouver)

Music: D.D. Rawlin (‘Grand River Song’), Peter Seeger (‘Don’t Ask What a River is For’), Dan Weisenberger (‘Listening to the River’) & Gwen Tripp & Nancy McLennan (‘Irrigation’).

Shawn O’Halloran at 2015 CD release party (Clive Baugh)

In ‘Tales of Creation’, in order of appearance:

Janet King (Geological Survey of Canada)
Norm Fontaine (Thompson, Manitoba)
Digby McLaren (Geological Survey of Canada)
Lillian Petawanakwat (Ojibway, Squaw Island, Georgian Bay)
Peter Kingston (McMaster University)
Maria Elena Orona (Owl Sisterhood, California)
Donna Yates (McMaster University)
Bill Harris (McMaster University)
Peter Sutherland (McMaster University)
Graeme MacQueen (McMaster University)
William Fyfe (University of Western Ontario)
Robin Riddihough (Geological Survey of Canada)
John Joe Sark (Micmac Grand Council, PEI)
Sylvia Bowerbank (McMaster University)
Steve Lawson (Wickinninish Island, BC)
William Chan (McMaster University)
Leonore Sorger (human rights activist, Hamilton)

Music: Northern Drum, Brian Eno, Dario Dominguez, Michael J. Birthelmer (The Boy From St. Joe; The Eyes That Watch the World), Fabrizio Delmonaco, Eliya, Shawn O’Halloran (‘God Made The World’), Paul Panchezak, and Dan Weisenberger.

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