As suggested by the name, Field Recordings are typically rough, rudimentary recordings -- often cut outdoors -- made by ethno-musicologists as a means of preserving and documenting the musical culture of a given region. Especially in corners of the world without written languages, musical or otherwise, field recordings are often the sole link to a culture's past;

As suggested by the name, Field Recordings are typically rough, rudimentary recordings -- often cut outdoors -- made by ethno-musicologists as a means of preserving and documenting the musical culture of a given region. Especially in corners of the world without written languages, musical or otherwise, field recordings are often the sole link to a culture's past; in America alone, folk and blues acetates collected in the deep South are an indispensable link to an era otherwise long gone, preserving the work of performers who never entered a proper studio but whose role in the development of the culture is unassailable.