About Dallas Simpson
Dallas Simpson has spent over 20 years involved with recording and performing binaural soundworks. The subject of each recording varies from natural surroundings, to artificial environments. In addition to recording these soundscapes, Dallas Simpson has also performed live. A number of samples of his work are available for download from this site.
Dallas is a professional CD Mastering Engineer trading under the name dallas MASTERS.
About Binaural Sound Art
Binaural sound art is both a particular style of recording and a particular approach. By inserting very high quality sub-miniature microphones into his ears, Dallas is able to sample his own human hearing and record what is known as "binaural sound" to conventional 2-channel stereo, with all the potency of a three dimensional surround sound experience when replayed on headphones.
The approach is to engage the listener, through his own ears, in a guided experience of soundscape awareness and intuitive interaction with found and introduced objects. Movement through a location allows creative spatial choreography - the compositional arrangement of moving sounds in three dimensional space - with additional opportunities to create an unfolding narrative in time.
For further reading, Dallas has also written a more in-depth article.
These binaural soundworks are not always "quiet", some works contain periods of natural silence but there are also a few surprises and in some cases the sound is quite intense, but all the sounds are "real", not the product of electronic synthesis, sampling or manipulation. I often refer to them as "meditations" and my meaning is that we should think and listen, for in thinking we may pause to reflect on both what we may be missing in terms of an enriched aural experiencing our continual daily lives, and how, in the attainment of this richness, we may have to modify our own behaviour to access it. Consequently, these works are not an end in themselves that glorify the artist, but are an open invitation for each of us to establish a new and sensitive relationship with our environment, for it is only when we fully appreciate its worth that we will strive at all costs to preserve it.
Dallas Simpson