Subharmonic Amsterdam ferry

Today we’re taking a trip on the Amsterdam ferry – this short trip only lasts for two or three minutes, and crosses the River IJ in Amsterdam from the Centraal station to the Noord district, constantly shuttling back and forth.

Here you can hear the entire journey, from the alarm signalling the automatic door closing to the engines slowing at the other side of the river.

For the reimagined piece, all sounds are taken directly from the Amsterdam ferry, with nothing added on top.

We’ve processed the recording with some serious low-end bass EQing, created a rhythmic loop from the closing door mechanism.

On top of that, we’ve added some generative processing effects that react to the field recording as input, and brought the alarm sound back in halfway through, to create this slightly threatening, bass-loaded piece.

City version:

Memory version: