Breakdance or b-boy battle between the two rivals from the neighbouring towns of Alexandrov and Sergiyev Posad with the name of the latter town called out by the supporters. Recorded at the Posadsky Arbat open air festival, Blinnaya Mount, Sergiyev Posad. It funny to hear the downbeat confronting upbeat in the clapping. Photo: Oksana Maltseva.

Recorded July 2nd, 2011 (MS-TFB-2)
Published February 2nd, 2012.

As a shop-assistant in the mid-1940s, she was taught how to cheat on customers but she refused to do so quitting her then sought-after job in favour of a rather dull life as a factory worker. A short story told by a stranger on Epiphany night in Sergiyev Posad back in 2010 (in Russian)

Recorded January 18th, 2010 (MS-TFB-2)
Published January 21st, 2012.

Water running down under the brige to the north of the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius in Sergiyev Posad close to the parking area. Voices and snow scrapers.

Recorded January 9th, 2012 (CA-14 omni + STC-9000)
Published January 11th, 2012.

There are two major skating rinks in Sergiyev Posad, both of them equipped with powerful and obtrusive sound systems.

This is not to say that the music played there is bad, if anything, I can bear with it most of the time pretty well, but the whole idea of having no choice makes me feel uncomfortable, and sorry for the people living nearby.

For some reason or another, yesterday’s night was a quiet one, only the sounds of blades scraping the ice, dry clickings of hockey sticks, odd voices, foul language and laughter, rude mothers and crying babies, happy couples and all the rest – a whole world packed into one single skating rink, cleared in a hurry and dimly lit.

Those night recordings come in two lengths. The first is somewhat long, lasting for about 16 minutes. You can skip it anytime (which I hope you won’t do), but it sounds pretty much the same during playback. What a wonderful toneless array of sounds!

The second recording is more emotional but way shorter, and I need to make a note on this for those who don’t speak Russian.

The baby can’t skate and she is begging her mother to come and take her by the hand. Subsequently, her mother walks away as the child bursts into tears once again. ‘Mama I don’t want you to leave me’, she says making a few awkward steps and falling down on ice. Her mother knows no better than telling off the poor child, and probably this is the way she’s been treated by her parents years ago.

Recorded January 5th, 2012 (CA-14 omni + STC-9000)
Published January 7th, 2012.

Vehicles rolling over the railway crossing at Vifanskaya street, Sergiyev Posad recorded on a dark winter night.

Recorded December 1st, 2011 (CA-14 omni + STC-9000)
Published January 3rd, 2012.

I’m not really sure where I have recorded this. It could only be assumed that it was made in the vicinity of the Trinity-Sergius monastery in Sergiyev Posad whose bells sound clear and solemn as ever. You can’t mistake it for anything else.

Actually the folder name suggests the railway station but I don’t see how the sound could travel that far, for about mile and a half, unaltered. Another argument in favour of this is the stilness accompanied by the voice (0.18 – 0.28), one of the foreign languages I’m not able to discern that could be quite often heard by the these world-famous monastery walls.

Anyway, I need to make a New Year promise to myself to get more self-disciplined when it comes to arranging files and folders. Happy belated Christmas and have a good time in the year to come!

Recorded December 8th, 2010 (MS-TFB-2)
Published January 2nd, 2012

Sitting on a shaky chair waiting for someone – it can be a tortourous experience. But with a recorder handy one can yield something good even in this kind of situation.

This is an old squeaky chair standing at the Radonezhye local TV station hall, so unstable that don’t know how I didn’t end up on the floor really. Every movement I made resulted in a shrieking sound, completely useless. I recorded those sounds, applied some basic processing and here it is. The hall – as far as I know – it doesn’t look the same anymore, so I wonder if this chair is still there but the sound remains. Again, this sound is of course not a binaural sound, it’s hardly even a stereo sound.

Recorded August 31st, 2011 (Edirol R-09HR, built-in mics)
Published December 20th, 2011.