Nathan McNinch

2005 release ** "This project began with an unlikely source: a t-shirt, which read 'if you eat, you have an interest in agriculture.' From conversations about the ways in which agriculture and farming practices have shaped our lives in North America derived primal ideas on a language to represent agriculture. Early in the spring of 2004, as the snow was just melting, I made some recordings of myself "playing" a derelict rusty piece of farm machinery abandon in a field. I was quite taken with the sounds I was able to record and with the extent to which I was able to "play" the machinery as an instrument. It was in these recordings that I discovered both the language and the story of this CD: a history of agriculture told using sounds created with the tools of agriculture. Initially the piece intended on developing using some sort of timeline, starting with the most basic elements: seeds, soil, water... and progressing to modern day mechanized tools. A combination of the old and the new; the banging and scraping of antique metal milk containers combined with the soft humming of a contemporary milk tank coolant unit. More subtle aspects of the history of agriculture, migration, drought, a recent move away from "the family farm"... were brought in. And here it is: the brief audio history of agriculture, all on one CD."