Sounds from the parking lot of a certain pharmaceutical company I pass by every morning. This morning employees were having their tyres changed: Two guys with a truck, some tools, and a trailer.

In three movements:

The BBC Newcastle has had the wonderful idea of documenting ‘a year in the life’ of the city’s town moor, with Chris Watson making sound-recordings and visual documentation by two local photographers. It’s all collected on a web-page on which one can click in on the individual clips. The kind of thing that’s close to my heart.

I do however find myself wishing for a little less voice-over, fascinating as some of the voices are, and a little more space to enjoy the beautiful field-recordings. Interesting as the information is, the speech very quickly transforms the field-recordings into a backdrop for what’s being told. That frustration is heightened on the more compact daily #MinuteOnTheMoor tweets that accompany the project. Those shorter recordings are presented via audioBoom ¹ alongside unrelated Kevin Keegan “Top Post” distractions.

I haven’t made many field recordings in the last few years. I’m wondering if that fits in with a general trend – it seems like there was a lot more activity in the 00s. Perhaps it’s just a shift of interest on my own part. Chris Watson keeps on doing his thing, for example.

I have found myself listening to the environment a little more during the last months though, and thought it might be nice to include some audio in these notes. I got out my old Sony PCM-D50, recharged some batteries, and hoped to get a recording of the goods train that sometimes passes our apartment late at night. But no goods train, or satisfactory recording of something else. So words instead.