You’re not really supposed to record or photograph in concert halls, but for seven years Christopher DeLaurenti recorded the sounds of people coughing and musicians warming up before and during concerts. He used a MiniDisc recorder and went forward to be closer to the orchestra warming up. You can buy the CD, or listen to three excerpts at the New York Times.

For Mr. DeLaurenti, 39, a Seattle-based “sound artist” and composer, the noises were art. Now, out of more than 50 hours of recording, he has compiled a CD of greatest hits. It is called “Favorite Intermissions: Music Before and Between Beethoven, Stravinsky, Holst,” the latest entry in humankind’s search for art in unexpected nooks.

It recalls my earlier entry:

The recording falls firmly in the conceptual tradition championed by John Cage, who turned randomness into a compositional tool. Witness his “Imaginary Landscape No. 4” for 12 radios, or “4’33,” ” in which a pianist sits silently at the keyboard for 4 minutes 33 seconds and ambient sounds become the performance.

(Via Boing Boing)