Geese voices coming from the other shore of the lake close by the Muranovo museum estate located between Sergiyev Posad and Pushkino. Traffic and running water are also heard.

Recorded October 8th, 2010 (CA)
Published October 8th, 2010.

There’s hardly a better way to learn about yourself than having an outsider’s viewpoint on things you may consider usual or even common. Here’s a good example of that.

I’ve got a letter from Des Coulam today. Let me remind you that Des is running a beautiful blog called Soundlandscapes. He is an Englishman living in Paris and he shares great knowledge and passion for Paris life, and also as an experienced recordist – street sounds in particular. If you have an interest in any of these do visit his blog and you won’t be dissapointed.

Des recorded a marriage ceremony lately, but it wasn’t an ordinary one… Or was it? A wedding conducted in the pretty usual way (for many), an Orthodox church ceremony – held by the Orthodox priest and a choir with all the rituals normally present. It was a Franco-Russian wedding though, the bride came from Russia and the groom was French.

This is the point when the whole story begins to sound different. The Orthodox ceremony thousands miles away from Russia, at the 15th century church of Saint-Medard in Paris, conducted in Russian and French, partially recorded, and then sent to Russia – what a journey! It doesn’t sound new or different now but it certainly draws attention to the hidden beauty of this sound and this ceremony, once again.

It is my pleasure to invite you to Des Coulam’ Soundscapes for more sounds from that wedding (which is a glorious organ recording actually) and from Paris as well. Thank you Des and tchin tchin for Anastasia and Mikael!

Recorded by Des Coulam, soundlandscapes.wordpress.com
Published September 6th, 2010

There’s a sound of a mooring ship in Egypt at the Podstation/Podstantsiya, the Russian media workshop website. The ship is named Moscow II. This one is emotional.

Published September 4th, 2010.

The remarkable _SD_, Mother Russia’s enfant terrible and wedding photographer (hiring him is really worth tying the knot) had always wanted to learn to play the piano. But in the meantime he is playing the wooden log that is normally used as a draw well hoist. _SD_ is displaying his talents at the Bogorodskoye village annual festival.

Recorded August 28th, 2010 (CA-14)
Published August 31st, 2010.

These are the most depressing things about Yaroslavl leisure park. First, the street musician with an old accordion and then the Kraken monster amusement ride backed by some German industrial metal soundtrack.

The first one is sad just because it is sad – a man in his forties, singing soviet love songs in a trembling disappearing voice, a worn-out Nescafe tin beside him.

And the other one – I’m thinking of an ordinary park employee pressing the button to power this ride, about the harnessed green and yellow plastic monster being, about this toyish sinister heavy metal music he is to perform to, the no escape feeling and the repetitiveness of it all – strange but super sad.

Recorded August 21st, 2010 (SP-TFB-2)
Published August 25th, 2010.

A good choice of fascinating outdoor direct sound streams from the main and side streets around the world could be found at the French website called Locus Sonus.

Not that long ago I wondered about those online audio streams that would bring the everyday charm of some faraway places apart from those I have already found – well,  Locus Sonus seems to be the best answer to all questions so far.

Supplied with “Audio in art” motto Locus Sonus is the postgraduate lab project hailing from the south of France. It is based at the Art Schools of Aix en Provence and Nice but its microphones deliver pretty decent quality .ogg streams from a number of locations in different countries.

Currently Locus Sonus offers the following 24-hour broadcasts:

• 4th floor window at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston
• 2nd floor window at the apartment on the 13th street in Buga, Colombia
• artist and World Listening Project director Eric Leonardson’s window in west side of Chicago, USA
• Rhizome Art Center in Lijiang, China
• Museum of Modern Art, Medellin, Colombia
• Komplex artist-run studio spaces in Reykjavik, Iceland
• top floor apartment window in Sollefteå, northern Sweden
• dining room/garden in Le Vésinet, France

Here is a short sample from the Buga street recorded yesterday evening:

There’s always a privacy concern hovering over services like this – isn’t it a bit of eavesdroping? It looks like the Google Street View dillemma, some say it staring over their fence, the others say it stares exactly the same way as any other tourist with his point-and-shoot camera does. Locus Sonus encourages people to take part in this experiment. They offer detailed instructions on setting up a outdoor mic to broadcast your street sounds to the world and even provide the most motivated streamers with 170 euro LocuStreamBox already equipped with a microphone, sound card and wireless connection device.

Listeners can also make your own global mix by playing those sounds simultaneously, by doing that on a dedicated page on the website or – as I did – transfer the stream urls they like into the Winamp bookmarks to have them handy all the time. There are couple of dozens of non-active mics markers put on the project map and who knows if they may be enabled one day.

Published August 14th 2010.

Webcams are nothing new to the internet, they are extremely handy if you are missing your latest holiday destination or homesick or just curious. But there is one particular quality that remains largely neglected over the years – the sound of it.

Finding an outdoor webcam with live audio stream is not an easy task. There are a few of them though – but not many. I wish there were more with better audio and here’s a good reason for that – the World Football Cup.

Apart from being an introduction to the updated links section at www.oontz.ru, this is the illustration of how technology, sound and global events blend together. There is a link to the Amsterdam cam – home of the second best football team in the world as you already know (the football fever is as pushy as the vuvuzelas sound, you can’t miss the news even if you’d like to).

Watching the final game and listening to the live stream at the same time is a thrilling experience even for a non-fan. But first let’s press the imaginary rewind button and hear what was happening a few hours prior to the game.

Hear the yelling, the trams and the vuvuzelas. A game is to begin soon and if the only knew…

This one sounds like dome avant-garde piece:

Footbal fans in Russia utilize the same rhythmic pattern to cheer themselves up known as “Spaar-tak-cham-pea-on” chant:

As the game begins the streets get empty but the silence was broken by a company of men singing… They did sing, eh?

And this is what Amsterdam sounded like on the night after the game as the Dutch team lost 1-0 in extra time to Spain:

Or even this (hopefully nothing serious):

And this:

So let me point out to the wonderful phenomenon of live audio travel cams. It is way beyond the pre-recorded sound in terms of ‘being there’ effect – think of it as canned vs. fresh – an unconventional way for some sound hunters to get inspired too.

Go to the link section to find more live sounds from Germany, Estonia and Scotland. It you know any interesting scenic audio webcam anywhere in the world I would be happy to hear from you.

Sounds courtesy of Terena Association and the good people of Amsterdam.

Recorded July 11th, 2010
Published July 15th, 2010