Product Description
Bark craft is one of the traditional techniques of the Amis people in Taiwan. Living in Taiwan, I am fortunate to encounter this technique that has been preserved to this day. From the harvesting of trees to the hand-pounding process that softens the bark and stretches its fibers into cloth, the sounds produced throughout are deeply fascinating. These sounds have been carefully recorded and collected in this BARK CRAFT sound library.
Beginning with the gathering of raw materials, the paper mulberry grows in mixed forests. Branches snap, long grasses are pressed down, accompanied by the rasp of a hand saw—sounds that are raw, forceful, and destructive. After the bark is peeled away with a ji-ji-ji sound, it is placed on different surfaces and pounded with a metal hammer. Each strike, landing on bark of varying thickness, produces a distinct sound. Sometimes the tone is deep; at other times it is crisp, as if the air within the wood can be heard. Pitch, material feedback, elasticity, absorption, and vibration all vary—much like a musical instrument. There are even wooden mallets with greater rebound than metal hammers, causing each strike to generate more than one impact sound. Finally, the tap is turned on, and water gently washes the bark cloth clean.
This library includes 51 sound files, consisting of 34 mono recordings and 17 stereo recordings captured in an AB configuration, all recorded at 96 kHz / 24-bit, with a total duration of approximately 31 minutes. In addition, each file is meticulously tagged with detailed Soundminer metadata.
All recordings were captured, edited, and mastered with care and love.