As you walk from the station to the monastery in Sergiyev Posad, you cannot escape this souvenir alley on your route. It is quite long and it stretches right to the Trinity Sergius monastery walls.

President-faced matryoshkas, fur hats, Khokhloma utensils, balalaikas, pseudo military outfit – all the props you need to make your own bad Russian guys movie. But don’t be fooled by this – there are plenty of great items hand made by the local artists as well.

This fair is not only place to get a pair of wool gloves knitted by a babooshka or some exquisite terracotta by the Abramtsevo folk – it’s a place to collect voices from all over the world, accents and dialects, toys and crafts, real bells and hand bells. Let’s hear the tourists as they stroll along the stalls at this global cross-road. This is the edited recording.

Recorded October 30th, 2011 (MS-TFB-2)
Published November 5th, 2011.

Isn’t that a wonderful pattern?

This is the sound of the Moscow train gathering speed. It takes a little less than an hour and a half to get there from Sergiyev Posad.

Recorded October 30th, 2011 (MS-TFB-2)
Published November 5th, 2011.

Imagine walking through a forest and hearing something like this…

A monster beast? An evil spirit woken too early? Not really.

Even though I knew where I was going I didn’t realize it at first. What I’ve heard was some heavy metal band playing at the open-air gig near the town of Peresvet this summer. Hear the birds and the wind in the trees at the end of this edited recording. I bet they thought they were invaded! Good news for them, it lasted only for a few hours – just like the Halloween night.

Recorded July 2nd, 2011 (MS-TFB-2)
Published October 31st, 2011.

Trance-inducing! Shoe store street advertising delivered by a loud hailer from a shopping centre window. Sergiyev Posad, Vokzal’naya square (Railway station area).

Recorded October 23rd, 2011 (MS-TFB-2)
Published October 23rd, 2011.

One of the least populated area in Sergiyev Posad, Grazhdanka (officially known as Grazhdansiky) area stretches south from the remote cemetery at the western part of the town.

You can walk for miles completely alone passing by the traditional wooden houses ranging from the poor to the well-to-do, through the mind-boggling CCTV-saturated 1990′s “get rich fast” lanes, and ruined never-to-be finished pseudo-castles of the less lucky ones lost in the whirlpool of the get rich fast times.

But apart from that, it’s a perfect place to enjoy nature and maybe even talk to occasional strangers. This piece begins with the voice of Yury, self-styled as the cemetery veteran, and obviously a professional grave-digger. He speaks of his experience of spending a few nights at the cemetery some 20 years ago fruitlessly trying to spot anything paranormal. The graveyard sounds are just the same as anywhere else distinguished only by the raven squawks, says Yury.

Then, a shepherd named Hagani who drives his cows home – he says nothing of the local sounds but is making it by whistling really loud. Finally, Valery Tarasyuk, the lathe operator who spent over 50 years working at the same factory and living on the same street. He knows the local sounds.

Two sounds appear on a recurring basis – the murmur of the Kontchura river that borders the area and the sound of footsteps on the grainy soil of Grazhdanka. Let’s take a soundwalk through this scarce but beautiful landscape so distinguished from what we used to here in Sergiyev Posad.

All sounds were gathered in the area. Here are the key non-verbal sounds featured in this recording:

Recording locations: Grazhdanskiy area
Recording date: August 04, 20th, 2011
Sounds: stereo, binaural stereo

Part of Sergiyev Posad Sound Map.

They say it’s better not to look at the welding arc as it may easily cause eye injury. Ok – let’s have a listen then, it’s perfectly safe. Here are the sounds of the wheelchair ramp being renovated at the Gagarin cultural centre in Sergiyev Posad.

Recorded October 6th, 2011 (CA-14 + STC-9000)
Published October 7th, 2011.

Please note the following material is not for the faint-hearted, listen at your own risk

I’ve always had a suspicion that a good Japanese word karaoke is somehow related to a good Russian word kara which means punishment. Just listen to some karaoke singers around and you will get the point. But these particular singers cannot be classified or ranked, they are just Sergiyev Posad karaokers recorded this July.

These are the final lines of a song heard all across the Mitkina street in central Sergiyev Posad one day and despite the fact I’ve pressed the rec button too late it was a truly rewarding moment anyway.

The following two pieces were recorded at the Sergiyev Posad’s Kozikha area Community day. In the summer evening dusk, at a local park a group of women are performing the eighties hit called Klyon (The Maple Tree).

This is followed by a bunch of young men with their own rendition of a tune from The Troubadours Of Bremen, a famous USSR cartoon.

Recorded July 2&16, 2011 (MS-TFB-2)
Published October 2nd, 2011.