Environments (album series)

Environments (stylized in all lowercase) is a series of LPs, cassettes, 8-track cartridges and CDs created by producer and sound recordist Irv Teibel (1938–2010) for Syntonic Research Inc. between 1969 and 1979. The series consists of recordings of natural sounds such as a seashore with crashing waves or a thunderstorm with falling rain, without musical accompaniment. The series helped ignite a worldwide interest in field recordings which resulted in many imitations being released throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s both with, and without, music.

Environments LPs

The original series, distributed by Atlantic Records, comprised 11 long-playing records with a different environment on each side, for 22 total Environments.

Environments 1 (1969)

Side 1: The Psychologically Ultimate Seashore (30:00)

The initial recording in the series goes back to 1968. Working under the direction of Tony Conrad and Beverly Grant Conrad, Teibel recorded ocean waves at Coney Island for use in their feature film Coming Attractions (1970). Teibel immediately sensed the marketability of this material, noting its effect on improving concentration, enhancing sleep and sex, and imparting a sense of calm to the listener. Conrad, who wished to credit Walter De Maria for his prior usage of ocean recordings, was not willing to become a partner in the Syntonic Research enterprise as envisioned by Teibel, so Teibel parted ways with the "Coming Attractions" project. Subsequently, Teibel himself felt unsatisfied with his results — though his Uher stereo reel-to-reel tape recorder had faithfully captured the sounds of the surf, he felt that they were less convincing on playback.