Dome — Paul J. Botelho and Jeff Kaiser

On 10 October 2023, my friend Paul J. Botelho (countertenor) and myself (trumpet) stepped into an abandoned World War II munitions bunker in Alvira, Pennsylvania and improvised music.

There are around 150 abandoned bunkers in the area, and Paul has mapped them all. Many are now covered and hidden by the surrounding forest. We ended up going to one that was fairly close, as I was unprepared to do battle with ticks. The bunkers are so accessible, and this one so close to the road, that it was covered with graffiti from previous visitors.

The parabolic shape of the bunker, and it being made of concrete, provide a very long reverb and interesting echos and was an incredible sonic environment. We each had a close mic, and the room itself was captured by Paul using a Sennheiser Ambeo, a microphone designed for VR audio productions that records sound in three dimensions (pictured in the slide show). There are several moments where a grouse (I believe) starts making sounds with us and the conversation of passing hikers is heard.

I started mixing the next weekend, with the final mix and mastering completed 1 February 2024 by. For those interested, I used Harpex to decode the ambisonic portion of the recording. In addition to the stereo, we also have an octophonic mix of the audio and video.

No electronics were used in the performance of this music.

What you hear is voice, trumpet, space, and environment.

For a variety of free and paid options of the music, please go to:
https://jeffkaiser.com/product/paul-j-botelho-and-jeff-kaiser-dome-tnpy-002/

…and please subscribe to youtube.com/jeffkaiser where you can see the video and more