Supposedly there exists a balance between life and work where the one complements the other and you enjoy both equally. They call the careers that fulfill as well as provide a vocation, and no matter how many self-help books you read or life coaches you hire, you’re not necessarily ever going to find yours and have it pay the rent all at once. Some people love what they do, but what they do isn’t the thing they love doing most, it’s a rare thing, but the ones who get it are incredibly lucky. Gordon Hempton counts among them. For thirty years and counting he has driven to secluded locales and recorded what he hears around him. His work in the sound industry has won awards and the man devotes the better part of every year to his quest to find sublime combinations of sounds in the ever-shrinking number of quiet places left in the country.
Many documentaries bemoan the loss of our planet’s rainforests, icecaps, and other natural splendors, but as they decry big industries for destroying majestic landscapes, few ever give consideration to the soundscapes and how they’re affected by the loss of flora and fauna. As you walk through a field you might take note of certain elements like wind passing through the grass or a bird chirping from far off. You’d hear one or two, but Gordon Hempton hears the minutest of details – and then he hears what’s no longer there. The downside of doing the job as long as he, is that you have a comparison for what sounds are present today and what he recorded 15 years back when the forest two miles away hadn’t been decimated by logging. What he does has an importance in preserving our planet’s natural history that many would overlook, and yet his objective is as much reactionary as it is proactive.
Optimistically, Hempton hopes that people will hear his soundtracks and be inspired to take action and restore places that once were isolated havens of nature’s orchestration but have since been spoiled by nearby highways, power lines, or air traffic routes. You can tell Hempton is genuinely disturbed by the changes in the world he used to record, but it’s as much due to the changes as it is due to his personal investment in the craft. Where most vocations have a nice balance, Gordon has given himself over to the job at such a level that his personal connections suffer. His marriage ended (though the reasons weren’t stated explicitly, you can’t help but think his eccentric commitment to the job must have played a part) and his relationship with his daughter, as it appears on screen, is one of disconnection. He calls from the road, she answers, they share a few neutral sentences, and he’s off again driving into the night looking for the next spot. When he does get face time with her, she seems like a regular teenager bending over backwards to appreciate the activity that rules her father’s attentions.
For the first half of the film, your viewpoint of Gordon is unmistakably intended to lean towards favorable as the passion he expends pursuing sounds shows him to be a man who values nature in a unique way. It’s not until he begins his quest for a sound clip of a bird warbling over the raging whistle of a passing locomotive that you begin to understand the obsessive side of his personality. It’s not a bad thing to want something so deeply that you’ll pursue it for hours with no guarantee of success, but it’s a mixed blessing to the core. The personal satisfaction is immense, but there’s a price tag attached: his connection to the other people in the world. He simultaneously seeks out places untouched by other people and curses them as the noises of civilization impede upon his progress. He has set himself up to loathe other people on both an emotional and professional level.
The documentary sounds and looks beautiful as Hempton catalogues the silent spots of the country, and he himself is a subject worthy of examination.
DVD Bonus Features
For a documentary, Soundtracker comes packed with extras including an interview with the director and featurettes on the quietest place in the US and a feature-length tour of the world using sound. Deleted scenes are also included.
"Soundtracker" is on sale September 7, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary. Directed by Nicholas Sherman. Starring Gordon Hempton.
