Sound action recording: Saracens vs South Africa
Category: Social - Rugby and cricket. Description: The announcer introduces the two sides in the Saracens vs South Africa Tuesday night match at Wembley. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:35.
Sound action recording: Souvenir scarves Wembley
Category: Social - Rugby and cricket. Description: Rugby scarf sellers shout for custom beneath the underpass outside Wembley Park station before the match. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Blog post: Golden days of the rag-and-bone men
Recently found a selection of letters from The Guardian newspaper dated June 2007, on the subject of rag-and-bone men. [. . .]
Blog post: Look who's come to Pinner
Contrary to London's stereotype as a grey Limbo of wailing sirens, most of the city’s inhabitants live the suburban life in the twenty outer boroughs, serenaded by birdsong, ice cream vans and jet airliners. [. . .]
Sound map recording: Cafe Rouge Pinner
Where: Cafe Rouge, High Street, Pinner. Description: Recorded French music, voices of customers and staff, sounds of the coffee machine. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: River Pinn
Where: In a field north of Nower Hill, Pinner. Description: Trickling sounds from the River Pinn, faint birdsong, the wind rustling foliage, distant traffic noise from the A404. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: Queens Head Pinner
Where: Queens Head pub, High Street, Pinner. Description: Customers' voices and noises from the open door of the pub's kitchen. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
London wildlife recording: Angry squirrel of Pinner
Where: Nower Hill, Pinner. Description: A grey squirrel angrily squawks at the recordist from a low tree branch. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 0:44.
Sound action recording: Noon bell Pinner
Category: Officialdom - Nonverbal signals. Description: The church bell of St John the Baptist, Pinner, strikes noon on a Sunday. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 0:44.
Blog post: Jive at the Paramount Ballroom, 1947
‘The hep-cats are at it, the jive is on, they’re in a groove.’ That’s how it was at the Paramount Ballroom in Tottenham Court Road in 1947 [. . .]
Blog post: Doodlebugs
The first doodlebug or V-1 rocket to land on London killed six people at Mile End in June 1944. By the war’s end they had taken the lives of over 6,000 Londoners. [. . .]
Blog post: Past sounds of Lambeth Walk and London Bridge station
Two excellent descriptions gleaned recently of early twentieth-century London sounds from the reformer Maud Pember Reeves and the writer V.S. Pritchett. [. . .]
Blog post: A beautiful recording made with skill (and expensive mics)
One of the good things about field recording is that you can get some fairly capable kit together for less than the price of many consumer dSLR cameras. [. . .]
Blog post: Sounds of the Chislehurst underworld
Among the gentle folds and rucks of the chalk hills to the south of London are the Chislehurst caves. [. . .]
Sound map recording: Chislehurst caves
Where: Chislehurst caves, south-east London. Description: Sounds of water dripping from a shaft into a shallow puddle on the cave floor. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound action recording: Guy Fawkes 2009
Category: Social - Other events. Description: Local residents gather on top of a hill in south-east London to see and hear the fireworks. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:30.
Blog post: London Sound Survey on YouTube
The second largest search engine after Google is YouTube. It seemed like a good idea therefore to set up a London Sound Survey YouTube channel and begin turning the 400-odd recordings here into simple videos. [. . .]
Sound action recording: School bell Nunhead
Category: Officialdom - Nonverbal signals. Description: The bell sounds at 9am at Hollydale Primary School, Nunhead, south-east London. Sounds of children shouting and yelling, and aircraft drone. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 0:30.
Sound map recording: Thames at Rainham
Where: Path by the Thames, south of the Rainham marshes. Description: Waves lapping the shore; loud, deep humming of machinery from a plant on the opposite side of the river at Jenningtree Point; faint cries of seagulls towards the end. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: Thames at Dagenham
Where: On a path by the Thames just west of Dagenham. Description: Waves lapping the shoreline, distant hum and clatter of machinery at Barking Riverside to the west. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: Creekmouth Barking
Where: By the Barking Creek flood gate. Description: A strong breeze stirs bullrushes; to the north, sounds of heavy machinery from factories and scrapyards. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: Olympic construction site
Where: On the Greenway path, near Pudding Mill Lane. Description: Great din of earth movers, dumper trucks and machinery from all around at the 2012 Olympics construction site. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:30.
Sound map recording: Hertford Union canal
Where: On the towpath beneath the Cadogan Terrace bridge. Description: Loud traffic noise from the A12 bridge over the canal, rushing of water from nearby lock gates. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: Hyacinth macaws London Zoo
Where: London Zoo, Regent's Park. Description: Throaty squawking and croaking of Hyacinth macaws as they clamber around the wire mesh of their aviary. Recordist: IM Rawes: Duration: 1:11.
Sound map recording: Reptile house London Zoo
Where: London Zoo, Regent's Park. Description: Footsteps and echoing voices of children and adults inside the Reptile House. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Sound map recording: Squirrel monkeys London Zoo
Where: London Zoo, Regent's Park. Description: Thin, high-pitched squeals of black-capped squirrel monkeys and some rustling sounds as they climb around a bush to get a better look at the recordist. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:11.
Sound map recording: Trains passing Manor Park
Where: Near the City of London cemetery, Manor Park. Description: Passing trains recorded from the alleyway between the railway and the City of London Cemetery at Manor Park. Some car noise and water rain dripping on leaves nearby. Recordist: Stuart Fisher. Duration: 2:12.
Sound map recording: Lambeth bridges
Where: Railway arch, Carlisle Lane. Description: Recording made on Carlisle Lane under the railway arches at Lambeth on the way towards Archbishops Park. The sound of trains passing and various other ambience. Recordist: Stuart Fisher. Duration: 1:22.
London wildlife recording: Blackbird alarm calls
Where: Wanstead Park, east London. Description: Sounds of a Blackbird alarm calling before going to roost in Wanstead Park. Recordist: Stuart Fisher. Duration: 0:37.
Blog post: Genghis Attenborough rides again
Offers of money and the lifestyle of a Mediterranean playboy are all well and good, but what London Sound Survey really craves is your sound recordings. [. . .]
Blog post: Kenneth Williams and the Mayor of Garratt
Among the chaos swarming off the pages of Clive Bloom’s excellent book Violent London: 2,000 Years of Riots, Rebels and Revolts, there’s a few sentences ending in exclamation marks. [. . .]
Blog post: When smashing windows is a sound action
The other day I watched some workmen smash in the old windows of a block of flats they were gutting and renovating. They looked like they were enjoying themselves. [. . .]
London wildlife recording: Eurasian Coot 1
Where: Welsh Harp Reservoir, Hendon. Description: Calls of adult coots in the reservoir, rising in number and intensity after one coot begins chasing another. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 2:00.
Sound map recording: Neasden Ikea
Where: Neasden branch of Ikea furniture store. Description: Recorded walking while around inside: a store announcement beginning with three chimes, voices of customers speaking in various languages. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Historical reference: Sam Selvon's 'The Lonely Londoners'
The Caribbean writer Sam Selvon describes old men singing and begging for money in the streets in 'The Lonely Londoners', published in 1956.
Sound action recording: Brentford vs Stockport 2nd half
Category: Social - Football. Description: Crowd reaction to some tackling, chanting, and a substitution is announced. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 2:08
Sound action recording: Brentford vs Stockport announcement
Category: Social - Football. Description: An announcement gets a laugh ten minutes into the first half. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 0:31.
Sound action recording: Brentford FC fanzine seller
Category: Social - Football. Description: Man sells a Brentford football fanzine at the entrance to the Griffin Park stadium. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 0:35.
Sound map recording: Staples Corner traffic
Where: On a walkway at Staples Corner interchange. Description: Wall of traffic noise from all around. Recordist: IM Rawes. Duration: 1:00.
Blog post: Fun with spectral analysis
Spectrograms are a great way to visualise sound. Laid low by the Dreaded Lurgi, I’ve been trying out different freeware and shareware programs at home. [. . .]
