An online library offers free access to sounds from 270 Unesco world heritage sites
Armchair travellers can take a sonic tour of hundreds of Unesco heritage sites via a virtual library of atmospheric soundscapes available free-to-listen online.
Sound artist Stuart Fowkes has been capturing and curating field recordings for a decade for his Cities and Memory project, which comprises more than 7,000 samples from some 2,000 contributors covering 130 countries.
Its latest deep-dive offshoot, Sonic Heritage, takes in 270 Unesco sites and includes recordings of crickets chirping in Florence, Tibetan prayers in Kathmandu and the sounds from within India’s Taj Mahal.
“Sound is so immersive,” said Fowkes. “It can transport you back to somewhere you’ve visited before, or drop you dramatically into an entirely new space.”
Sonic Heritage collates soundscapes from Fowkes’ own travels around Chile, Italy, Estonia and Germany, and draws together submissions from other artists across 68 countries.
He explained how the project offers an alternative way of experiencing some of the world’s most visited sites that goes beyond tourist hordes and gift shops. “If you think about world heritage sites, all you think of is crowds and camera shutters and everything being ruined by over-tourism,” he said. “Those sounds are contextually interesting, but what struck me was that a lot of these spaces just sound really amazing and beautiful in their own right.
Sonic Heritage includes sounds of chanting and chatting inside the Taj Mahal. Image: EyeEm Mobile GmbH
“You have everything from sites related to natural heritage – the migratory patterns of whales and birds, for example – to sacred spaces that have been designed to look and sound extraordinary.”
Sounds of people working number among Fowkes’ favourite recordings. “They remind you that behind the picture postcard there are people who live there and it’s part of someone’s working life,” he said.
What struck me was that a lot of these spaces sound really amazing and beautiful in their own right
He added that one aim of the project was to stoke a debate around preserving the diversity of soundscapes at popular locations. “Do any of these sites have sounds that are valuable as experiences themselves?” he said. “The answer is yes – but when we think about the preservation of a site, sound is not often considered.
“To achieve that, it’s important that people who visit these spaces actually value sound. This project is a first step in that journey.”
Listen up! Three standout soundscapes from the project
1) Salesmen hawing bottled gas around the hilly streets of Valparaiso, Chile, drum out complex rhythms on the metal canisters to announce their arrival. “It’s like the ice cream van coming,” said Fowkes. “It’s a defining sound of ‘Valpo’ which you can hear from hundreds of metres away.”
2) Creaking timbers, the gentle slop of waves and – suddenly – a breaching grey whale exhaling through its blowhole. A close encounter with one of the planet’s largest species in Mexico’s El Vizcaino whale sanctuary, which made the World Heritage List in 1993.
3) Think of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel and you probably have an image of silent reverence. In reality the soundscape is a cacophony of chatter punctuated by chapel attendants calling for quiet. “It’s a rollercoaster, this ebb and flow of noise and quiet throughout the day,” Fowkes said.
Find out more at citiesandmemory.com/heritage
Main image: Juli Kosolapova
