Field Recordings: December - December (2021)

78 / 100

Best described as a minimalist, immersive soundscape that works both as deep-listening noise art and casual ASMR.

This album was already reviewed by me late last year in the Indonesian group Music Enthusiast Indonesia (MEI), though the piece was rather short. After all, Indonesians generally still have low reading interest, something even admitted by the group admin. At that time, in December 2024, two posts about the song “December” by Neck Deep crossed my feed; it made me want to “show off” too. But in my favorites playlist there were only two tracks titled December, one of which was December by December.

December is a 30-minute single of field recordings/noise—what’s popularly called ASMR—recorded by an artist known as (bleak), released on December 1st, 2021 via Poland-based experimental/noise label Gates of Hypnos.

It was quite surprising because the cheap earphones I used at first listening versus now made a big difference: what once sounded like a quiet, calming snowfall in winter now came across as noisy like a storm or heavy rain. The same thing happened in my test this time, comparing Nakamichi HQ-X21 earphones (slightly pricier) with a cheaper TRS souvenir pair. 

Beyond that, I only later realized—after consciously reading—that the recording is actually ocean waves crashing, which indeed appear throughout the track. So, I was fooled by the wintry album cover, and even though I tried to be a “good reader,” I still overlooked important text in daily life. Embarrassing, right?

In the end, this self-titled album by December proves impressive since it remains in my favorites playlist, despite last December’s doubts caused by the differing earphone outputs. And of course, for listeners unfamiliar with field recordings, this track works well as sleep-inducing ASMR.