Oz Fritz
All Around the World
2004

A recurring notion in Ray Bradbury's writing is an idea of televisions - giant ones that cover entire walls - that engulf the viewer (the more affluent your family, the more screens you have, generally all located in a single room). Not simply a statement on the harm of television, Bradbury's version of televised entertainment is a bit more involved, the viewer literally sinking into the program to participate (i.e. your children leave the living area to wander in tall African grass).

Oz Fritz might not pluck a note, press a key, strike a drum or sing a note, but he makes wonderful music. As he explains to a young passerby during the first few minutes of track one, Oz Fritz makes "recordings", but it's not as simple as that: Fritz catalogs the music and ambience of holy places, Asian countries and unnamed city streets and transparently arranges them into a fascinating, dynamic, intimate program, not unlike the aforementioned Bradbury scenario. One moment you're walking to your pew during an organ prelude ("Our Lady") then enjoying hymns from Easter Mass performed on skin drums and dulcimers ("Easter Mass Midnight Mass"). Suddenly, you're plunged into a temple full of explosive drum reverberations, the local fowl chiming in for good measure ("Temple Drumming"). From Egypt to Brooklyn, Fritz's work takes you there, plunging you head first, teleporting you like a news reporter, on the scene at every story, during the evening news. This is a real-time sonic documentary of the world you can almost touch and smell.


One guy on Amazon said the following (I think it's important you get the immediate reaction from someone who doesn't normally follow this sort of music.

"I bought these field recordings due to the Laswell connection.I found this cd hard to listen to.You get sounds with people talking in the background, some native music, some vocals,percussion and drones .Alot was unlistenable noise as if on a bus in a forign land and OZ recorded the sounds.Reminds me of the soundtrack to a National Geographic movie."