vanishing quiet spaces / Gordon Hempton interview

[mac]

here link to a clip and an interview with Gordon Hempton about diminishing number of quiet places and beneficial influence of silence on our lives. highly interesting. some great points there.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/01/27/an-unquiet-nation.html

[chrismcdonnell]

Thanks for sharing that, I found it fascinating! He is completely right, we all need to experience that quiet...the noise of the city is so jarring to me.

I especially can't stand the sound of cars...there is almost no-where around here to escape the roar of a motorway. Everywhere you go, you get bombarded with noise...it can't be healthy.

[mac]

yeah, tell me about the cars. it's brutal out there. one of the main problems is that people don't know how to drive their cars efficiently. i went to this eco-driving course and it turns out that one car going at 4000rpm is as loud as 20 cars going at 2000rpm. (engine + sound of wheels on the road). unfortunately many people crank up their engines and drive around at high gears thinking that it will get them faster to their destination. this way they cause more noise, burn down gallons of gas and overdrive the cars. is not necessary at all. the problem is that these facts are not taught during driving classes.

i went to my home town (small city, about 30 thousand people) a few days ago, hoping i could get some "clean" recordings at 4 in the morning. forget it. all the beautiful morning sounds of frogs and birds polluted with car sounds. it's sometimes really depressing. seems that there is no remote place to escape.         

[Guy Birkin]

Nice little interview. Hempton seems like a US counterpart to Chris Watson (UK). Have you seen the price of his CDs though?! Over $300 for a 4CD set! http://www.soundtracker.com/

The noise (and smell) of traffic really gets me down at times. I've been retreating to this little spot, a stone's throw from my house: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=52.953222,-1.110005&num=1&t=k&sll=52.953591,-1.121753&sspn=0.006295,0.006295&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&ll=52.952297,-1.109641&spn=0.00923,0.023239&z=16 Here in the woods the sound of birds and wind in the trees overcomes the roar of traffic. Actually, I'm quite fascinated by the sound of traffic (both road and air) when it's filtered through a few miles of air and it washes about in the wind, but it would be nicer if it wasn't there at all.

[chrismcdonnell]

For me the worst thing about traffic is that the noise is completely "forced" upon you, that there is almost no escape from them at all! It is just so at odds with nature, I can't stand it.

I know what you mean about the sound of traffic from a distance though...it does take on a different quality, a distant drone that's fascinating in it's own right! But as you say, it'd be nice to escape from it.

Interesting to see you're in Nottingham Guy, not too far from me! I tend to go up to Ploughman's Wood near Lambley, there's a great atmosphere there, apart from the farmer's planes during the summer (a right pain, but what can you do?)

[pnorris]

I enjoyed this as well. I have a place I visit for quiet. It's an upwards of 4 hours away, but well worth the trip if you want solitude or clean recordings. The road is at least 30 yards away and there's only traffic on it every few hours and almost no aircraft fly over. The actual middle of nowhere.

But I also enjoy the sounds of traffic. I've taken to recording them as well.

[pascal savy]

I feel the same about traffic noise being "forced" upon me and try to enjoy as much as I can "silence" where the more minute sonic elements can combine and develop free of cars etc.

Reading comments about the traffic noise from a long distance turning into "nice" drones, I thought about this beautiful release by Wieland Samolak from 1993, that some people might be interested in (http://monolake.de/releases/ir-01.html)

[mac]

yep, sound sources from the distance can be really something. there used to be a huge iron foundry in my home town. located in the city limits, about 1km away from the district where i lived. it operated 24/7 producing a wonderful, deep, warm drone that embraced the whole city. one could hear it especially on summer nights. it was distinct and calming for the denizens but unbearable and distracting for visitors and passer-byes. people used to go out for night walks just to enjoy listening to it.
i also met people who moved out from the city and later couldn't sleep at night because they claimed they missed and were uncomfortable without the drone from the foundry. it went bankrupt years later and we've never heard from it again.

but that was back then when i didn't even dream of having a portable recorder...

[jimmy behan]

Traffic noise is a particular bugbear of mine too, more so because I don't drive either.
Actually traffic in general is a bugbear of mine, it's such a primitive means of transport in this day and age.
There's literally nowhere you can go in Ireland to record without traffic noise creeping in from somewhere, unless you go to one of the islands off coast or get up very early in the morning.
Having moved out of the city a couple of years ago, I do sometimes miss that fug in the background, but I've been sleeping way better too.