How Paris sounds to two different people

Today’s an interesting one for me, as it’s a day on which I step back from Cities and Memory and just become a facilitator for other people’s recordings and art. We have a field recording from the Louvre in Paris by Jase Warner, which has been remixed by sound artist La Cosa Preziosa, who writes the note below about her interpretation of Jase’s recording:

“Although the original file holds no specific clues about the museum itself, it offers plenty on the fascinating tourist universe swarming just outside it.

“My memory is immediately drawn back to sunny afternoons at the Cour Napoléon, the tourist traffic dizzying in contrast with Pei’s quietly zen pyramid. The recording suggests a crowd in flux, with a clear sense of movement, and fizzing with a palpable sense of excitement. I can clearly picture tourists from around the world, of all languages and skin colors, rushing to beat the queues and ‘do’ the Louvre. There is some gentle busking in the background.

“I used this music as a sort of ‘sonic thread’ to carry the babel of sounds of the crowd.  I altered its melodic qualities to hint at the unreliable, fuzzy dimension of a far away memory and accompanying changing moods. I created a sort of looped drone in three parts which I then overlapped, pitch-shifting the notes multiple times, playing around with presence & centering and adding some exaggerated hi-frequency harmonics. Finally, I liked how the single French word ‘Arrêt!’ spoken by a female seemed to stand out in the cacophony of languages, and its meaning seemed apt as an intimation to stop daydreaming- so I used it to bring the piece to a close.”

City version:

Memory version:

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