Cueing up a CD of field recordings for the first time is a little like opening a time capsule. With quality recordings, you get something of a sonic "glimpse" into other places and spaces. They can also afford insights into another mind, conveying a sense of what the recordists finds interesting enough to hit "rec."
For his "Favorite Sounds" project, Cusack asks residents of various cities (e.g., London, Bejing, Prague, Chicago, etc.) "What is your favorite sound of [city] and why?" He and his fellow recordists then set out to find and record these sounds.
The recordings are generally of extremely high quality, although sometimes the compressed noise of busy settings creates a harsh smear of white noise (as at the beginning of track 2).
Track 3 ("S Bahn trains, Alexanderplatz station") is a true keeper. I am an afficionado of subway sounds (with the San Francisco BART as a favorite) and Cusack clearly has an ear for the "genre." The sound of the Berlin subway arriving and departing has to be heard to be believed. Equally compelling is track 13, "Small stones thrown on ice." As the liner notes put it, "[it] is an unreal sound, almost electronic."
Others are fairly standard urban field recordings, and don't seem particularly endemic to Berlin aside from the language spoken (e.g., track 4 and 5, recordings of a social gathering and children in what sounds like a park, respectively). Many of the recordings lean toward the locational (as in tracks 7-10) as opposed to "found sound" recordings of machinery, processes, etc. (as in track 11, "Glass bottle recycling.") As such, they are best heard with hi-fi equipment and/or using good headphones. Otherwise, it may be difficult to distinguish the recordings from sounds in the listener's setting.
The names of the tracks on the packaging are extremely helpful, since they specify the types of sounds you are likely to hear. They serve as a guide to the smorgasbord of sounds available on the disc. Looking for a relaxation session? Choose the ambient and nature tracks. Want to hear some transportation sounds? Look for the boats, trains, planes, and automobiles. Also, the liner notes feature descriptions of why the residents like the sounds they mentioned, and often provide some insights.
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