Synesthetech

PHOTOS: Things seen during the past summer in locations around Ann Arbor, from my Flickr stream.

I’ve been focusing on more visual than sonic documentation of my new surroundings in Ann Arbor, Michigan this summer. It’s partially due to sheer laziness: it’s much quicker and easier to break out a camera, snap a quick photo and be done with it than it is to stealthily situate yourself with a microphone and record for several minutes until you get just the right sounds to add to a field recording library. Some of the pictures I’ve taken have been an attempt keep a visual list of places to return to with a recorder; while I may not have made as many recordings as I would like right now, I have a fairly lengthy (and still growing) list of locations and phenomena I’m planning on recording. But without trying too hard, I’ve already collected several interesting recordings, the first batch of which is below.

1. Night train crossing Huron Street bridge (4:16, 8.8MB mp3)

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   The first recording I made here is probably still my favorite so far. During a nighttime walk, Alex and I happened to pass underneath a bridge just as we could hear an Amtrak train in the distance. I managed to record its entire approach and passing in what feels like an epic-length recording. I would imagine quite a few drivers were frustrated that night having to sit and wait for over four minutes for this train to pass them.

2. Fire Alarm Static, Pierpont Commons (0:55, 2.1MB mp3)

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   What sounds like an overactive fire alarm, recorded in the Pierpont Commons on the University of Michigan’s campus next door to the Duderstadt Center which will probably be my second home in a couple more weeks.

3. Argo Park, Huron river under traffic bridge (4:42, 9.1MB mp3)

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   A nice combination of river sounds echoing beneath a bridge with traffic going overhead, recorded during one of several hiking trips this summer.

4. Ann Arbor 4th of July parade 2009 (5:18, 10.7MB mp3)

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   Ambience at the beginning of the local July 4th parade. The incoherent narration over the too-quiet loudspeaker in the background is my favorite part of this.

5. Fireworks, back porch (6:13, 12.1MB mp3)

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   We were under the impression there were no fireworks to watch in town on the 4th; then suddenly a massive fireworks display began in a park somewhere west of our apartment - we couldn’t see it from our place, but we could definitely hear it. While not quite as impressive as the sounds I used to record on our sunporch back in Chicago, the distance and reverb in this recording is really interesting.

6. William Street, morning setup for Ann Arbor Art Fair (2:01, 3.9MB mp3)

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   The Ann Arbor Art Fair is described by some naysaying locals as “not art, and not fair”. This recording is in the early morning, on a mostly deserted street filled with artists’ tents waiting for their owners to arrive. Someone was sitting outside watching a portable television, which you can hear during the second half of this; not quite sure where they were or what they were watching.

7. Classic cars parking in Ypsilanti’s Depot Town (1:41, 3.7MB mp3)

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   Before we spent a weekend in Toronto (recordings from there coming soon!), we spent an evening in Ypsilanti, Michigan’s Depot Town, where we stumbled on the Depot Town Cruise Night, where owners of classic cars gather every Thursday to display some of their collectibles. This is the sound of several of them maneuvering their cars into position along the closed-off street. Includes a bonus out-take of one of the car owners chatting to us before noticing I was holding a microphone, and my goofy uncomfortable laugh in response.

8. Depot Town Cruise Night walkthru, Ypsilanti (3:43, 7.5MB mp3)

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   A walk up and down the Depot Town street filled with classic cars, as well as the sounds of a portable DJ booth spinning mp3s of ’50s and ’60s songs. There was something oddly funny about watching an oldies DJ use the same gear that other people use to create cutting-edge sound art.

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Recording traffic passing over metal construction plates, 111 West Jackson St, Chicago, April 29, 2009 (photo by Alessandra Gillen)

Picking up where I left off, here’s my second batch of recent Chicago field recordings, my sonic farewell before Alex and I move to Ann Arbor…

1. Rain outside apartment sunporch (9:35, 20.7MB mp3)

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   Almost ten minutes of a lovely evening rain from the acoustically rich interior of our apartment’s sunporch, facing north.

2. Purple Line CTA train arriving at Howard (4:47, 10.5MB mp3)

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   A healthy portion of the second half of my morning commute (Brown line to Belmont Purple line, then Purple line to Davis). This is actually a Purple line only to Howard, so occasionally my commute has had three parts instead of two. I was lucky to get a recording of the train interior without anyone speaking.

3. Traffic over metal construction plates, 111 West Jackson St. (5:56, 12.3MB mp3)

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   Recorded at the same time the picture above was taken. A block-long stretch of Jackson Street down in the Loop has had a series of large, square metal plates on it for some time, and when the traffic runs over them they make a great booming sound which echoes amazingly off all the skyscrapers nearby.

4. Fountain, Art Institute of Chicago garden (4:00, 8.2MB mp3)

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   Public fountain season’s upon us, so this is a recording of this fountain now that it actually has water in it again.

5. Modern Wing of Art Insitute of Chicago under construction (3:20, 6.9MB mp3)

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   A compact little field recording symphony. I love the way the drone of the equipment and the traffic interplay at first, followed by the construction worker’s whistling and the woman’s footsteps in the gravel. A great beginning, middle and end. Can’t wait to finally see the inside of the new Modern Wing in person this coming weekend!

6. Walking to Sox-35th CTA station after White Sox victory (1:37, 3.3MB mp3)

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   A nice moment of public euphoria, saxophone and changing acoustic spaces as we walk across a bridge over the freeway and into the Sox-35th CTA Red Line station.

7. Birds, cars and El trains, 5:15am (8:47, 17.3MB mp3)

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   Since I have the sleeping habits of a 70 year old man, I usually wake up around 4:30am. When spring starts, the morning birds go crazy. This was the first really riotous bird morning of the season, and i recorded this out the windows of our living room.

8. Chicago River bridge raising alarm bells from Merchandise Mart CTA train platform (1:32, 3.1MB mp3)

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   I’ve rarely seen the bridges over the Chicago River down in the Loop raise up to let boats pass underneath. I’d never seen the bridge raise up in front of the Merchandise Mart CTA train platform while I was actually on the train until this past weekend. With the bridge up, the train couldn’t pass, so we disembarked and stood on the platform so I could get a recording of the bridge’s warning bells as it lowered back down into place, mixing nicely with the walkie talkie communications of a CTA employee standing next to me.

9. Hissing air vent above Chicago Union Station Amtrak track, National Train Day (2:25, 4.6MB mp3)

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   After touring an Amtrak Superliner train during the free National Train Day event at Union Station last weekend, we stepped back onto the track and walked right under an air vent with an amazing hiss. That wall of white noise has a few cracks in it which expose some of the other sounds in the station at the time.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.