“This is a short snippet of an afternoon in a traditional coffeehouse in Vienna, Austria in March 2023. 

Vienna is famous for its coffeehouse history, this coffeehouse being over 100 years old. Young and old, residents and tourists alike spend long afternoons here, chatting, reading the newspaper, eating Apfelstrudel and trying their way through their many coffee specialties. When you’re in luck, as we were, there could be a piano and violin duo playing which you can hear alongside the chatter of guests, clanking of silver spoons on dishes, and the formally-dressed waiters taking orders in the background.”

“On Saturday 15 April, a pigeon showcased it’s cinephile credentials by joining a packed audience in the BFI Southbank’s biggest auditorium (NFT 1) for a screening of Mervyn LeRoy’s classic movie, Gold Diggers of 1933.

The pigeon did not have a ticket however and before the film started, the team at the venue diligently attempted to liberate the bird from the cinema screen. After 30 minutes of various approaches it was decided that actually it could stay and watch the film. 

Thankfully it was freed later in the day and has been telling the other pigeons of London about the virtues of the big screen experience. 

This recording was taken in the audience, before the film was started, whilst venue staff tried to coax the pigeon towards a fire escape. It starts just as they decided it might be worth playing some cat sounds into the PA system. 

Sam Clements & Louise Owen, makers of the 90 Minutes Or Less Film Fest Podcast.” 

“Made on the tidal beach on the river Thames watching people mudlarking just under Waterloo bridge… trains pulling into Waterloo station above and simultaneously waves lapping below… Towards the end you hear a mudlarker say ‘uh oh a shoe, you get a lot of single shoes around here!'”

“Cadogan Pier, North Bank of the river Thames, beneath Albert Bridge near Chelsea Embankment.  Built in 1841 Cadogan Pier has been Chelsea’s only river transport link for over 150 years and currently it is served by the Thames Clipper Uber Boat service to Putney and Canary Wharf. This is a Hydrophone recording (recording under the water) taken on a sunny February afternoon – you might hear boats, traffic on the bridge, a few birds, the pier, wind and waves.”

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“Hundreds of people gather to demonstrate outside the Houses of Parliament whilst MPs hold the second reading of the ‘Illegal Migration Bill’, a piece of legislation that denies asylum to anyone risking their lives to cross the Channel in ‘small boats’. The government has itself admitted that the legislation might breach the European convention on human rights and the UN has said it’s a ‘clear breach’ of the refugee convention. At its second reading the bill was passed 311 to 251. 307 of the votes for the bill came from the Conservative party.”

“Myself and my co-editor (at The Sonification) went to cover a story about a mining company that has permits to start an open pit project in a rural area about 150km north of Bergen, with all the waste rock and process chemicals to be deposited in the nearby fjord—which also happens to be a pristine National Salmon Fjord. To a lot of local people we met, the fjord is a major food source, a place to relax and fish with family, and beyond that, an identity and a way of life. The story of the mining project is incredibly complicated and goes back a long way, but it’s a source of immense bitterness and sadness to many.

The underwater recording is from a hydrophone at 5 metres’ depth, with some mysterious scrapes and gurgles that could be from marine life, of which there’s a lot… There’s also some drilling sounds, which probably come from the construction and tunnelling work at the mine, although I can’t be sure.” 

“A soundscape recorded on December 27, 2022 at around 10 a.m. in Bacău. It immortalises ‘Alaiul datinilor’ 56th edition, a special day when people from all over the Moldova region come to the city of Bacău to show off their own traditions, songs and dances. Everyone is wearing a costume with different kind of masks and is making a different kind of noise. The result is an explosion of colours and sounds all over the city.”