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Generations : Shanghai Ferry

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Gathering sounds for an upcoming performance in November 2021, I finally had a reason to complete some recordings I have always wanted to document- The Shanghai Ferry crossings. There were 16 of them that connected the more populous or industrial areas along the Huangpu.

For the recordings, I would make a soundwalk by continuously recording the entrance, waiting, crossing, and exit in a single take. I would check the ferry times and would begin my recording several minutes before departure to document these elements of the journey. The opening and closing of the rolling gates at each port were always a treat to record because of the groan of tired, rusty wheels.

The more remote ferry ports are quiet, liminal spaces, with mainly foot traffic and the occasional motor bike during midday. They had only a few employees who had passing conversations with regulars. A prerecorded speaker that tirelessly made announcements broke the silences between ferries. The more central ports had plenty of traffic making for a lively journey.

Some boats were larger than others with nicer finishes for the passengers with or without an outdoor balcony.

Each track contains the soundwalk as well as other shorter detailed recordings I made around each port while waiting for the return boat back. For this playlist, I compiled the recordings of each ferry onto one track and separated them with a 3 second gap. The final track is the live recording of the performance.

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北新桥-胡同

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北新桥 /双耳录音/ 交道口北二条胡同也是我每天的必经之地，里面住着不少老北京，保持了老北京的生活习惯 / 这段录音也是一段声音漫步 //

North Xin Qiao / Binaural / The intersection of North 'Er Tiao' Hutong is another place I pass by everyday / A lot of old Beijingners live here and still keep their old way of life / This is a soundwalk //

All recordings and Photos by Jamie Lu

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Sanlian Island

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三连岛是青岛银沙滩附近的一处人迹罕至的地域，退潮后，她只是大陆延伸出去的海角，而潮水满时，她就化身为三座美丽的小岛 / 这里没有沙滩，却遍布着大大小小的鹅卵石，在海水的浸泡与阳光的照射下，五彩斑斓 / 录音1是在一处平缓的海岸边，海浪的冲刷声，浪花的飞溅声，远处隐隐的汽笛，穿梭而过的渔船马达与天上划过的飞机的呼啸，声音立体却又透着一股宁静 / 录音2是在延伸到海里的一处礁石，平滑的海浪到达礁石后在岩石不规则的缝隙与孔洞中穿梭碰撞，构成一曲水的交响 //

Sanlian Island, is an inaccessible area near Qingdao’s Yin Tan / When it is low tide she extends out to the sea as a single piece of land / When the tide comes in, she turns into three small beautiful islands / There the beach is littered with small and large pebbles that shimmer in the sun, coloring the water /

Track 2 is at the reef the extends to the sea / The waves slip along the irregular cracks and crash into the holes, composing a flowing symphony of water //

All recordings, text, and photos by Liu SiYuan

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Metallic Rain In The Inner Yard

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22:25 / February 2, 2017 / 42.226428,-8.730567 / Metallic Rain In The Inner Yard / On rainy days I could be lying in bed for hours listening to the clatter of rain in my inner yard / A random and metallic rhythm produced by striking the various tubes and canopies of the building //

Los días de lluvia podría estar horas acostado en cama escuchando el repiqueteo de la lluvia en mi patio interior / Un ritmo aleatorio y metálico producido al golpear en los distintos tubos y marquesinas del edificio //

All recordings and photos by Marco Maril

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Boat Ride On Ganges River

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07:52 / January 29, 2013 / 25.306600, 83.010723 / Boat Ride On Ganges River / One of the best experiences that Varanasi can offer is a boat ride along the Ganges River / The city has 87 Gaths where all sorts of activities take place, from religious ceremonies to cremation, people who bathe their buffalos in the river, people who wash their clothes, people who clean their sins in the Ganges / All the time something different is happening, because people come and go, this is the most pilgrimaged city in all India / The movement of the boat along the river generates an interesting mix of prayers, bells, shouts, music, people, it seems like the buzzing of a honeycomb / In the foreground the paddle of the boat, and the breathing of the captain who stayed quiet while I was recording this sound //

All recordings and photos by Erick Ruiz Arellano

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Bahnhof

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11:39 / February 11, 2017 / Bahnhof / 51°20’42.022’‘N, 12°22’51.683’‘E / For me, the main station is the place in Leipzig where it is most obvious how much the city has changed within the last 25 years / In my childhood, it was a dark, scary place, with the smell of urine everywhere / Today it is a shiny shopping center / Wolfgang Hilbig, one of my favorite authors, closed his last novel “Das Provisorium” with a sentence about this very station after the political turn: “And in the rising sun at the end of the station three letters appeared, which emerged dark on the shining window pane, it was the three letters that stood for a large industrial company, and the victorious sign gave the sun its name … AEG.” / When I made this recording, soccer fans were arriving in special trains for the Saturday soccer match, and the main station was crowded with police / The aggressive song of the fans and the tense calmness of the police filled the station with an atmosphere I had never experienced before //

All recordings and Photos by Sebastian Brock

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Alcabre Beach

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10:56 / February 22, 2017 / 42.222339,-8.768004 / Alcabre Beach / A sunny winter day in the middle of the week / The quiet and deserted beach, with the calm sea / It's not usual, so it's worth to enjoy it / As soon as the echoes of the engines disappear, peace emerges / The combination of the waves breaking on the shore with the song of the birds is a caress for our ears / The soundscape concludes with the bells of a nearby church reminding that it's 11 o'clock in the morning //

Un día de invierno soleado entresemana / La playa tranquila y desierta, con el mar en calma / No es algo habitual, por eso merece la pena disfrutarlo / En cuanto los ecos de los motores desaparecen, surge la paz / La combinación de las olas rompiendo en la orilla con el canto de los pájaros es una caricia para nuestros oídos / El paisaje sonoro concluye con las campanas de una iglesia próxima recordando que son las 11 de la mañana //

All recordings and photos by Marco Maril

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Signals

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13:30 / February 17, 2017 / Signals / Corner of Rideau and Sussex Street / Rideau Street is a major downtown street and one of Ottawa's oldest and most famous streets, running from Wellington Street in the west to Montreal Road in the east / Sussex Drive runs roughly parallel to the Ottawa River and is the street of the residence of the Prime Minister and the Governor General / This recording is of the ‘beep beep’ sound at each corner of this busy street corner / The beeps are intended as signalisation for sight impaired citizens but they also make for an interesting urban sound event / During this recording I walked around the four corners of the Rideau and Sussex Street intersection for 6 minutes, recording conversations and experiencing the overlap in the beep signals //

All recordings and Photos by Claude Schryer

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O Castro Gardens

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10:50 / February 16, 2017 / O Castro Gardens / 42.232028,-8.726013 / Urban gardens are places of sound contrasts, the beauty and harmony of water and birds singing harassed by noise pollution / The gardens of 'O Castro' are the highest point of the city, a magnificent viewpoint to visualize and listen to the city / All their noises are present here, in this particular "air tone" of Vigo //

Los jardines urbanos son lugares de contrastes sonoros, la belleza y la armonía del agua y el canto de los pájaros acosadas por la contaminación acústica / Los jardines del Castro son el punto más elevado de la ciudad, un magnífico mirador desde el que visualizar y escuchar la ciudad / Todos sus ruidos se hacen presentes aquí, en este particular "air tone" de Vigo //

All recordings and photos by Marco Maril

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天通苑南地铁站

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天通苑地铁站/双耳录音/每天出门都要使用的地铁站，没一个声音对我来说都亲切得不可思议。这是一段进站过程的声音漫步//

/ Tiantong Subway Station/ Binaural / This is my subway station / Every sound here is so familiar to me that it is almost unreal / This is a sound recording walking into the station //

All recordings and Photos by Jamie Lu

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Qingdao Hospital Pancreatic Surgery Nurses Station

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医院，人们在这里出生，人们从这里离去/青医附院是青岛最著名的医院，她的东边西边和北边，各有一处欧式教堂，她的西南方向不远，就是青岛著名的地标—栈桥 /众多美景环绕的这前海一片，医院居然成了人群最密集的所在 /

In the hospital, people are born here and people die here / Qing Hospital is Qingdao’s most famous hospital / To her east, east and north are European-style church / Not far southwest is Qingdao’s landmark Pier / Many beautiful views surround this hospital, so many people unexpectedly gather here /

Track 9 is Qingdao Hospital medical center’s Hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery nurse’s station on the west coast //

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Under The Bridge

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07:30 / Under the Bridge / February 11, 2017 / 51°21’39.508’’N, 12°20’5.234’’E / There are a lot of rivers and canals in Leipzig, and a lot of bridges; some say there are more bridges here than in Venice / This was recorded under a bridge in an area where I spent my days off school biking when I was child / Nowadays, I go jogging there / As a child I was afraid of being under the bridge when a train was crossing it / And even today, sometimes I run a little faster when I hear a train coming //

All recordings and Photos by Sebastian Brock

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Washing Clothes At Ganges River

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08:08 / January 30, 2013 / 25.296942, 83.007409 / Washing Clothes At Ganges River / One of the most classic activities that takes place along the Ganges River is washing clothes, sometimes for hotels or individuals. The truth is that the river water is not the cleanest / I think you would never get the whitest white as in the TV commercials / In my hotel cynically there was a sign on the door of my room that said: “Laundry Service, No Ganga River Washing, Washing Machine Washing” / It is impressive the sound that is generated when they hit the rolled sheets against pieces of stone that serve as washers, the amplitude is majestic and the effect of reverberation on the steps that go down to the river is similar to the one that occurs when someone applauds in front of the Mayan pyramids //

All recordings and photos by Erick Ruiz Arellano

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Burial Ground For Negroes At 1500 Block E Broad St

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16.12.16 / 12:05 / 37° 32.271 N, 77° 25.646 W / Burial Ground For Negroes On 1500 Block Of East Broad Street / Estimated to be active between 1750 and 1816, Richmond's Burial Ground for Negroes was the final resting place for uncounted numbers of Africans enslaved by Europeans / The mass grave has been abandoned and repurposed a number of times since the last body was laid to rest there / Misappropriations of the site have included the Richmond City Jail, and in the 1930s, the City dog pound / Finally reclaimed and memorialized in the 1990s, the Burial Ground is now partially paved over by Interstate 95 / In this recording, you hear the sounds of automobiles passing on the directly adjacent interstate, as well as helicopters traveling to and from the neighboring VCU health center //

All recordings, text, and photos by Katie Wood

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The Mouth Of The Lagares River

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11:20 / February 9, 2017 / The Mouth Of The Lagares River / 42.20187,-8.775080 / The boundaries between animal life and civilization, between nature and pollution / The sound is not inmune to the contrasts and the acoustic confrontations that take place in the border between both worlds / Survival versus oppression / The cry of nature standing by the gates of its destruction / At the mouth of the Lagares river, whose waters are highly polluted, birds raise their voice / No one seems to understand //

Los límites entre la vida animal y la civilización, entre la naturaleza y la contaminación de las ciudades / El sonido no es ajeno a los contrastes y a los enfrentamientos acústicos que se viven en la frontera entre ambos mundos / La supervivencia ante la opresión / El clamor de la naturaleza ante las puertas de su destrucción / En la desembocadura del río Lagares, cuyas aguas están altamente contaminadas, las aves alzan su voz / Nadie parece entender //

All recordings and photos by Marco Maril

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北新桥-簋街

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北新桥 / 双耳录音 / 在北新桥站周围进行了三段录音，这里我最熟悉，是我每天工作的必经之地 / 冬天的簋街到了夜晚，路边纷纷燃起一盆盆炭火，人来人往的是拉客的人和被拉的客，虽不如夏天的簋街热闹非凡，却有北京的味道 / 这是一段声音漫步//

North Xin Qiao / Binaural / I did three different recordings around this area / I am very familiar with this place because I pass here for work everyday / On winter nights on Gui Jie, containers of charcoal fires would be dragged along the side of the road, it is a very Beijing thing to do / This is a soundwalk //

All recordings and Photos by Jamie Lu

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Bouzas Under The Bridge

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10:45 / January 9, 2017 / Bouzas Under The Bridge / 42.223764,-8.757672 / Underneath the bridge of the motorway, that crosses the promenade of the Bouzas marina, you will find one of the most amazing sound points of the city / The cars passing by generates a very curious random rhythmic pulse and the reverberation of the structure causes that the noise of the water seems to leave from the interior of a cave / Mysterious and deep, with one microphone pointing to the top of the bridge and a stereo pair near the water / The pedestrians interaction joins this special sound //

Debajo del puente de la autovía, que cruza el paseo del puerto de Bouzas, se encuentran uno de los puntos sonoros más alucinantes de la ciudad / El paso de los coches genera un pulso rítmico aleatorio muy curioso y la reverberación de la estructura provoca que el ruido del agua parezca salir del interior de una cueva / Misterioso y profundo, con un micrófono apuntando a lo alto del puente y un par estéreo próximo al agua / La interacción de los transeúntes se unen a esta sonoridad tan especial //

All recordings and photos by Marco Maril