Sounds from a Siberian train station
Zima, Russia – today we’re on the platform of a Siberian train station, listening to the hissing of train brakes, the cries of passing train horns and the distant Russian departure announcements, as recorded by Mark Wilden.
Oxford-based musician Richard Watts recomposed this recording, adding relentless rhythm and a cold, granular synthesis to create something from the original piece that sounds like the lost score to a John Carpenter theme – Escape from Siberia, anyone?
Richard writes: “It’s made up of samples of voices and the train sounds.
“The idea was to have a relentless rhythm based on the train noise samples, invoking the long journey to get there, and then have melodies that give the impression of emptiness and the coldness of Siberia.”
City version:
Memory version: