Art of Field Recording, Volume I

Like many people fascinated by American roots music, I have placed Harry Smith's venerable Anthology of American Folk music near the top of my list of historically important recordings. Smith was able to capture a broad spectrum of material and assemble a collection of music that may well have disappeared or fallen into total obscurity without his efforts. I return to the collection often, and I find that it excites me and revives my sensibilities as much as it did upon first discovery.

The folks at the Smithsonian have done a wonderful job of building on this tradition, releasing albums that preserve the rarities of American music, urban and rural, for generations to come.

The new release from Dust-to-Digital, Art of Field Recording, Volume 1, is sure to appeal to anyone who might feel the same way.

As a label, Dust-to-Digital's mission is "to produce high quality cultural artifacts, which combine rare, essential recordings with historic images and detailed texts describing the artists and their works. "

This collection features over 100 photographs and illustrations, a 96 page book, and four compact discs - dividing the collection into Blues, Sacred, Instrumental and Dance, and a multi-genre Sampler.

This recently released box set is to be followed by a second similarly copious Volume II in 2008, and likely a third collection in 2009.

The music was collected by Art Rosebaum over a 50 year period, and like Smith's anthology, features a number of never heard treasures by often obscure artists.

You can find out more about this release, and other offerings from Dust-to-Digital here.