The sounds of the Grand Canal, Venice

I recently travelled to Italy to do some recording and came back with a barrel full of samples from Venice and Milan – if anyone would like to remix some Italian sounds, please drop me a line.

Here’s the first in a series of remixes from that trip – a sound from the Grand Canal in Venice, recorded at Campo San Samuele. This recording is unusual for us in that it’s also accompanied by a video clip taken at the same time, so you can see exactly where we were and what was going on when the recording was taken in the clip below.

Sitting on one of the traghetto jetties, I recorded sounds from above the water, then below the water with a hydrophone, in which you can hear the noise of the boats’ engines from underwater. The two recordings – above and below water – mix in and out of each other every minute or so, creating the impression of the listener being slowly lowered into and raised out of the water of the Grand Canal. Have a listen and enjoy the sounds without having to get a dunking in canal water too.

City version:

Memory version:

Video of the city version: