The sound recordist is honoured by the Australian Screen Sound Guild for his 37 years working in Australian film and TV.

The sound of Australia is iconic: sizzling barbecues, chirping crickets and the crackle of dry summer air. It’s a familiar atmosphere that we might take for granted – but sound recordist James Currie has dedicated his career to conjuring that familiar soundscape for the cinema. At a ceremony in Sydney on Sunday, Currie was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Australian Screen Sound Guild for his 37 year career capturing that quintessentially Aussie atmosphere on tape.

Currie studied music and film at the Elder Conservatorium and Flinders University, and joined the South Australian Film Corporation in 1973. Since then, he has gone on to create and record unique sound environments for almost 100 Australian films and TV projects, including work with acclaimed directors Rolf de Heer and Paul Cox.

Currie said he was shocked to win the award since he’s not a mainstream artist. “I occasionally dabble in the mainstream,” he said in an interview with ABC, “but my main life has been with the underground, alternative cinema and those auteurs, so it was a big surprise.”  

Music is the best-known element of sound within a film – just think of Bernard Hermann’s unforgettable score for Psycho, or Stanley Kubrick’s use of Richard Strauss’ Thus Spake Zarathustra as the gloriously powerful opening to 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, like the score, background noises and distinctive sounds are vital to bringing the dramatic tension of a film to the fore. As a sound recordist, Currie doesn’t work with the music, but rather the subtle noises that are essential to realising a film’s location and atmosphere. He’s worked on a number of iconic Australian films, including Red Dog, Ten Canoes and Charlie’s Country.

Andrew Zielinski in his book, Conversations With a Sound Man, writes that Currie “creates and records a unique sound environment, believing firmly that sound needs to be recorded and mixed using the actual environment in which the film is being shot. From this philosophy has come his practice of recording on site, seeking the truth, integrity and fidelity of each location.”