City Sounds

My first instinct when considering how to answer this prompt was to talk about music.   Being a musician, a deejay, and a avid fan of live music, it's hard not to incorporate music into most of my endeavors. However, the more I thought about it my most memorable sonic experience has nothing to do with music; live or recorded. 

As much as I enjoy a good concert, and as many significant moments in my life that have been soundtracked by some incredible songs, it was a lack of music that I found most impactful.

After moving to Austin, I quickly developed a love of urban cycling; it's slower than driving and allows you to see and listen to a city in much greater detail (and I'm not patient enough to walk). At the end of many nights, I would escape my dorm and bike down to the Long Center, right on the southern shore of Ladybird Lake.  I would start the ride with my headphones plugged in and my music turned up loud, and once I arrived at the Long Center,  I would sit and watch the city while listening to my favorite records. 

One night, though, I got a little sick of the constant noise blasting through my headphones, so I took them out and planned to sit in silence.  What I heard was nothing like what I expected. A city is anything but quiet.  The sound of Austin can be taken as one single wash of sound, but, as I sat there, I started to pick out the different pieces that were making up the dull roar I was hearing. I heard the cars first. Then I heard a muffled conversation down by the lack. Sirens would occasionally soar in and out of the scene.  Below of this, there was a sort of rumble that was coming from all of the buildings of the city themselves. I kept listening and kept hearing more new sounds; whether it was a bat flying overhead, the footsteps of a passerby, or my own breath.  I sat, fascinated at the fact that I'd never noticed how intricate a city's soundscape is.  

After this night, I've made a point to listen to all of the places I visit, and each one is completely unique.  New York's subway squeals, the chatter of all sorts of languages being spoken on the Charles Bridge in Prague, the way the Pacific waves almost echo off of the mountains that surround Vancouver, or the actual silence of West Texas at night.

The night at the Long Center taught me how to listen to and appreciate not only the physical qualities of different places, but their sonic landscapes as well.