sgsr_030

Recorded in Barcelona, Spain, October 2013. Edited only to remove distortion, microphone handling, and unintentional breaks. No compression. Expect wild dynamics. Adjust your levels accordingly.

The final entry in this three-part journey through Spain.

Barcelona is where everything converges: faith, performance, architectural ego, and systems on loop. A city under endless revision and construction never finishes. Here, the recordings trace simulations: of cultural prestige, sacred silence, and motion without destination. It is a place sculpted by noise — from Gaudí’s vertical fantasies to the distant hum of tourists performing “wonder.”

What remains are fragments of sonic repetition, spectacle, and entropy.

field notes

[barcelona] renfe broken intercom - recorded in a renfe passenger car between san sebastian and barcelona. one of the intercom speakers broke about an hour outside of barcelona, and produced this somewhat irritating sound, causing most of the passengers to clear the car.

[barcelona] cab ride along gran via - recorded in a cab traveling along the gran via, en route to the hotel. features some truly excellent spanish talk radio.

[barcelona] port olympic at night - recorded during a nighttime walk at port olympic, when few people were present. you can clearly make out cicadas as well as some large industrial machinery operating nearby.

[barcelona] palau güell (entry hall) - recorded in the main entry hall of the palau güell. unfortunately, there’s a considerable amount of construction noise coming from outside the building, however you can also clearly hear people listening to the guided audio tour (via headphones!)

[barcelona] palau güell (replay organ system) - every thirty minutes, the güell palace organ plays back various musical numbers powered by the replay organ system (no human is involved). the selection of music changes between various german composers, including selections from wagner’s “tannhauser”. the piece played here is antoni nicolau’s “entre flors”.

[barcelona] palau güell (museum film) - recorded during a film playback concerning the history of the güell family and their relationship to antoni gaudi, who designed their house (the palau güell). it has a very excellent vintage sound to it.

[barcelona] along the ronda litoral - recorded during a daytime walk down the ronda litoral, near the water. seabirds and tourists are all clearly heard. i really have no explanation for the rooster, however.

[barcelona] la rambla at midnight - recorded at midnight on la rambla, during which i literally walked the entire length through the center of the crowd. features lots of excellent street hawkers and performers, as well as tourist crowds from all over the world.

[barcelona] stroll down calle de tanger - recorded during a daytime walk, en route to lunch. fairly typical inner city audio soundprint.

[barcelona] sagrada familia (construction) - recorded in the exterior area of the sagrada familia, capturing the construction which is apparently without beginning or end. so, consider this a small piece of it.

[barcelona] sagrada familia (pipe organ) - recorded in the main seating area in the sagrada familia, while the pipe organ works it’s magic. unfortunately, i didn’t capture the name of this piece.

[barcelona] sagrada familia (prayer area) - recorded in a semi-isolated prayer area, featuring some excellent choral music (pre-recorded).

[barcelona] city archives - recorded outside the barcelona city archives, with a short trip indoors. an interesting building, the recording also features some street performers and fountains.

This recording is issued under the Creative Commons attribution non-commercial share-alike license.

This is the end of the trip — but not of the project. The recordings were never about places.

They are about urban systems. Human rhythm. About how sound channels the architecture of control.