By Year By Place
Austria: Graz Straden China: Chongqing Guangzhou Qingyuan Shanghai Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur Netherlands: Eindhoven Slovenia: Ljubljana Spain: Barcelona Taiwan: Kaohsiung Thailand: Bangkok UK: London USA: New York City Vietnam: Hanoi
Austria
Graz
Graz Hauptplatz 1999
The main square in Graz on a summer evening: A busker plays local hits on his harmonica, another one plays jazzy saxophone somewhere in the background, people eat sausages and chat about their holidays, trams pass.
Straden
Rural Night Life 2007
A peaceful late summer night in the village of Straden: crickets chirping, leaves blowing in the wind, bells tinkling and the churchbell rings, while my dad is snoring contently in the background.
China
Chongqing
Chongqing TV 2005
Chongqing TV are producing an ident for their station. On the side of a motorway beside the Jialing river, overlooking the breathtaking panorama of Jiefangbei and Chaotianmen on the other riverbank, a group of fresh-faced teenagers are lip-syncing to the angelic voices of Chongqing TV's theme tune. If you were to walk on a few hundred metres, you would see a wasteland of demolished buildings with people dotted around picking bricks from the rubble. The are will be flooded by the raised water levels caused by the Three Gorges Dam. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Chongqing Construction Workers' Percussion Ensemble 2005
A group of construction workers attacking paving stones with pickaxes and chisels in Jiefangbei. The fact that their pickaxes are all tuned to different notes makes the process sound more like a musical performance than a building site. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
McAdvertising 2005
A McDonald's restaurant in Jiefangbei advertising with speakers mounted on the outside of the building. The only problem is, the CD player is broken and creates a remix of the adverts that is reminiscent of Yasunao Tone's approach to CD playback. The recording consists of two takes, one recorded close to a building site and one directly beneath the speakers. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Tourist Boat Tout 2005
A guy and his megaphone selling tourist boat rides at Chaotianmen. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Railyard Workshop 2005
Workers throwing bits of metal about in a railyard in Yangjiaping, train horns and swallows creating a musical backdrop. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
North Bank Removals 2005
Workers loading rubble from demolished buildings onto a ship on the north bank of Jialing river, recorded from a distance and accompanied by the horns of passing ships. The area will be flooded by the raised water levels caused by the Three Gorges Dam. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
I see this recording of a train reversing in a trainyard in Yangjiaping as a tribute to Pierre Schaeffer's first piece of musique concrète, Étude Aux Chemins de Fer. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Monorail 2005
Apart from warnings about intrapping, the announcements on Chongqing's monorail also offer advice about the traditional virtues of the Chinese people. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.Guangzhou
Buddha Machines 2005
The loop players looking a little like handheld radio receivers but which are preloaded with a set of loops of Buddhist chants can be found in temples all over Asia. Here an assortment of these playing simultaneously create a rather eerie atmosphere in Guangxiao temple. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Old Ferry 2005
A ride (abridged) on a ramshackle ferry across the southern arm of the Zhujiang river. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Outside a KFC restaurant their advertisement is wishing every passerby a happy birthday on a continuous loop. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Shipyard Workers 2005
It's 1 pm. At a Shipyard along the southern arm of the Zhujiang river sirens call the start of a new shift. Seemingly out of nowhere hordes of workers descend onto the place and dissapear behind its gates. All of them are dressed in identical clothes, most are on bicycles, some come on foot or on motorbike. After about 20 minutes the spectacle ends, the gates close and quietness ensues outside while work begins behind the walls encircling the yard. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Swimming Pool 2005
Evening in Lianxing: Children of various ages playing in a swimming pool among a complex of high-rise residential buildings, accompanied by cicadas and air-conditioning units. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Weaving Factory 2005
The polyrhythmic musings of a weaving machine in full swing, churning out metre after metre of prime fabric. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Park 19 Lift 2005
The lift at Park 19 Art Space, in a warehouse in Taining. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Qingyuan
Clothes Workshop 2005
A garment factory in Qingyuan. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Shanghai
50 Moganshan Lu 2004
Before the hype, 50 Moganshan Lu was a collection of ramshackle warehouses that contained a handful of Shanghai's up-and-coming independent galleries. It was all very low-key, and the arts scene seemed to blend in effortlessly with the local population. This recording was made one late Saturday afternoon and I was taken by the serenity of the whole scenery: children playing, people singing while passing on their bicycles, birds chirping. A year later the place had been rebranded as M50, listed in tourist guides and building works were under way in every corner. These days, every square inch of usable space is occupied by galleries selling the latest in Chinese contemporary art, with art bookshops and art cafes providing the finishing touch. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Brilliant City.
Funfair Ride 2004
This funfair ride at a sleepy entertainment park in a public garden sounds like a rather sad affair, and actually it wasn't much fun riding on it either, apart from the odd moans and croaks it emitted. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Brilliant City.
Brilliant City (Zhong Yuan Liang Wan Cheng) is a complex of residential high-rises in northern Shanghai. At night people walk to the local shops in their pyjamas while listening to the sounds of cicadas and children's voices reverberating between the skyscrapers. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Yi Er San Si Wu Liu Qi Ba 2005
At the experimental primary school in Brilliant City (Zhong Yuan Liang Wan Cheng), children start their day on the sports ground performing synchronised gymnastics to the sound of patriotic music and their teacher as an MC. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Broken Glass 2005
A pair of workers loading glass shards onto a lorry with their shovels at night in central Shanghai. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Typhoon 2005
A typhoon blowing through the windows of a flat on the 34th floor in Shanghai. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Tropical Storm 2008
The daily tropical storm, here with some particularly fierce thunderbolts, recorded at Central Market. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Netherlands
Eindhoven
Preacher 2006
He is the sort of loveable eccentric every city should have more of. A preacher of his very own denomination, white hair and beard floating in the wind, roaming the centre of town on his buggy that is decorated with spiritual slogans while offering blessings and advice to anyone happy to listen. This recording is a blessing in a made-up language, delivered personally to me.
Slovenia
Ljubljana
Ljubljana Railway Station 1999
Somehow everything seemed to fit together on this summer day: the late afternoon sun, the song of the swallows, the melodic train announcements creating harmonies with the sound of the train engine, people's voices drifting past like the leaves being blown around by the wind.
Spain
Barcelona
Filipino Boys 2001
A group of maybe 20 Filipino teenagers, working in catering in Spain, sitting on the square in front of the CCCB in Barcelona on a mild October evening, getting drunk while singing sentimental songs.
Taiwan
Kaohsiung
Sugar Cane 2008
Accompanied by relentless Taiwanese eurodance, the recorded voice stoically continues to repeat its promotion of sugar cane juice at this stall close to the defunct Ciaotou Sugar Refinery. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Gong Yuan Lu 2008
Gong Yuan Lu is a street lined with small shops dripping in motor oil, where parts of engines and other industrial equipment get recycled and resold. As part of the rebranding of Kaohsiung, all of these shops will be closed by June 2008 and razed to make way for a new park. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Island Leisure 2008
Evening on Chichin island: an elder gentleman is enjoying a bit of karaoke, while a couple of teenagers play a basketball arcade game, which seems to be particularly popular in Taiwan. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Childhood Photos 2008
Mum and auntie are posing for photos with their children on Chichin island. It takes a few attempts to get the perfect shot. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Balloons 2008
Balloons being filled with air, to be used in one of the shoot-em up stalls at RueiFeng night market. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Numa Numa 2008
The song Dragistea Din Tei (also known as the Numa Numa song) by Moldovan pop group O-Zone was a hit in Europe in 2003-04 and then took East Asia by storm in 2006. At RueiFeng night market, a couple of arcade machines play a 4-bit version of the song simultaneously but hopelessly out of sync with each other, and the whole thing descends into a dissonant soup of ghastly beeps at odds with each other. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Arcade Game 2008
One of the many arcade games at RueiFeng night market. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Pop Song Shoot-Em Up 2008
An arcade game at RueiFeng night market with glorious 4-bit sound. It's a kind of pinball machine, where one appears to be shooting down pop songs, as everytime you score a hit, the currently playing melody is interrupted by a bomb sound effect. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Pest Control 2008
5 am at Han-Hsien International Hotel and the pest control man is spraying the lobby with chemicals designed to kill the numerous mosquitoes that tend to congregate in there. Quite a different sound to the player piano that usually plagues the soundscape in the evening. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Thailand
Bangkok
Blind Busker 2008
A blind woman sitting by a busy road with a microphone and a tambourine. She was mostly ignored by the few passersby, but I found the whole scene and her song incredibly poetic. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
UK
London
Brixton Station
1999
At the time, Brixton station was a kind of micro-melting pot featuring a set of characters who collectively caused commotion on a daily basis. Some of them were known by names derived from the sounds they contributed to the local soundscape: the Biggie-Biggie man or the Incense man for example. These two were supported by an assortment of preachers from various Baptist and Pentecostal churches, market criers, ticket touts, Underground staff and others. Since the attempt at gentrifying the centre of Brixton things have become a lot less interesting. Leaving the station now, one is not greeted by the lively hustle and bustle, but by the sounds of cars and buses going past.
Anarchy in the UK 2001
The breakdown of law and order: May Day 2001, Tottenham Court Road in central London. Watched by police helicopters circling above, but with few police in the street, anti-capitalist rioters are roaming around almost freely, smashing the windows of banks and shops while cheering each other on, occassionally running from a handful of police officers.
On 20th March 2003, the day after the invasion of Iraq, demonstrations were held around the world in opposition to the war. In London, people gathered in Parliament Square in the afternoon, shouting slogans at the Houses of Parliament that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up centuries earlier. Later in the day, drum band Rhythms of Resistance joined the protest with their infectious rhythms, making sure the noise of public anger will penetrate the shielded corridors of power.
Opened in 1902, Greenwich Foot Tunnel runs under the river Thames, connecting the Isle of Dogs with the borough of Greenwich. Its rounded diameter and tiled walls give it peculiar acoustics, which are being explored here by children imitating police sirens. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Ball Games 2005
A group of children from the local Bangladeshi community playing ball games in a side lane off Commercial Street on a Sunday afternoon. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
The Original Magnetic Bracelets 2005
Market criers touting their wares at Sunday's Petticoat Lane market in East London. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
A cavernous space with walls covered in graffiti, the skate park at the South Bank Centre is somewhat reminscent of the sites of prehistoric rituals. In this place, youngsters daily worship the cult of the four wheels attached to a wooden board. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Please Place the Item in the Bagging Area 2005
Now omnipresent at supermarkets across the UK, at the time automated checkouts were a novelty. I am still fascinated by the cacophony of disembodied female voices giving friendly but firm instructions on how to shop with the help of a machine. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Flyover 2005
Under a flyover in East London, the passing cars create interesting rhythms while driving over a joint in the structure. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Undercurrent.
Filming in the Rain 2006
A film crew on Toynbee Street in East London is surprised by a thunder- and hailstorm descending from out of nowhere on a mild September night.
USA
New York
Homeless Assistance 2008
A representative of Homeless Assistance offers help to homeless people on a New York subway train.
Vietnam
Hanoi
Public Announcement 2008
Hanoi's streets are lined with megaphones broadcasting announcements by the government to its people at the same time every day. This one, warning of the dangers of illegal fireworks, has been recorded at an outdoor cafe. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Internet Cafe 2008
Youngsters playing games at a late-night internet cafe in Hanoi's old town. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Streetcriers 2008
Hanoi's streetcriers are nocturnal creatures who traverse the streets of the old town on their bicycles following seemingly random patterns, each one of them having a unique song advertising the wares they sell. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.
Workers + Tourists 2008
While a pair of workers carry sand into a building site, a group of drunk tourists are trying to find their way back to their hotel after the 11:30 pm bar curfew in Hanoi's old town. Recorded for the D-Fuse project Surface.