Occasional posts on subjects including field recording, London history and literature, other websites worth looking at, articles in the press, and news of sound-related events.
FOR THE PAST four years I’ve been adding historical radio recordings of London life to this website. It now amounts to around 90 sound files with a total listening time of over four hours. If you haven’t done so already, please check out that section and immerse yourself in the sounds of a world now moving beyond living memory.
Unfortunately this particular well has now almost run dry. There are only a few more recordings to come and then that’s your lot. However, there have been three additions in the last week to which I’d like to draw your attention.
The first is a proclamation by the Common Crier from 1939, the day after Chamberlain declared war. The Crier lists all the goods which are to be considered contraband of war.
Next, from 1936, there’s a recording of the announcement at St James’s Palace on the accession of Edward VIII. A massed gun salute from St James’s Park booms out in the background.
Finally, and in my opinion the best of the three, there’s what the BBC judged to be a ‘very good atmosphere’ recorded at night during the 1946 victory celebrations by the Thames at Westminster.
Hope you enjoy listening.
The balloonist in the desert is dreaming
The Binaural Diaries of Ollie Hall
The Ragged Society of Antiquarian Ramblers
Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology
World Forum for Acoustic Ecology