sgsr_043

recorded 2015 / 2019

outside the pressure chamber of bangkok, sound unfolds differently. in khon kaen, ko phayam, ao nang, and krabi, these recordings trace a more languid tempo: stray dogs asleep under trucks, insects testing the limits of frequency, long-tail boats cutting across silence like static. sometimes it feels like the margins — but margins of what?

in the tourist zones, the mechanisms of global hospitality hum in the background. one person’s vacation is another’s low-wage hustle. even here, even in paradise, the real work is invisible — hidden beneath the palm trees, behind the reception desk, or offshore entirely. the sound doesn’t lie, but it doesn’t always explain itself either.

as always, these are uncompressed binaural recordings, best experienced through high quality headphones. minimal editing has been done to preserve the dynamics of each location. some tracks may feel disorienting or uneven — this is by design.

field notes

[Khon Kaen] Piman Garden Rooftop - on my first day in khon kaen, i managed to find a way to the roof of the hotel piman garden, where i was staying. i was immediately entranced by the view of the city, but also taken by the sounds of nature and the telecommunications tower on the roof creating this hypnotic pulse. the mechanical clicking sounds were the sound of my medium format camera advancing the film, as i was simultaneously taking photos from the roof. i hadn’t realized how amplified those sounds would be in the final recording, but there we are.

[Khon Kaen] Thai TV (Financial News) - while idly flipping channels on the hotel tv, i came upon a financial news show of which i understood not a word, but i thought it sounded rather intense.

[Khon Kaen] Thai TV (Game Show) - again flipping through channels on the hotel tv, i landed on some kind of thai game show that seemed to be some kind of bizarre interpretation of an american idol style song contest. as with most asian tv shows of this kind, there’s an endearing goofiness to it that sort of defies description, so i wanted to try to capture that here.

[Khon Kaen] Tawanthong Restaurant Rain Storm - should you ever find yourself in khon kaen, and in need of quality vegetarian food, you owe it to yourself to check this place out. as we arrived, a rainstorm of biblical proportions broke out, and we were trapped here for quite some time. hardly one to say no to an endless amount of food, i dug in for a while then sat around capturing the storm as best i could. just a few minutes into recording and the storm let up. i’m not saying i control the weather, but i certainly couldn’t have planned it better.

[Khon Kaen] Airport Terminal Ambience - the regional airport in khon kaen certainly captures the spirit of “chillax”. we showed up quite a bit early for our flight to ko phayam (as one does), only to find the airport deserted. eventually enough employees showed up and we went through the usual security theater and made our way to the departure deck; this is captured here.

[Ko Phayam] Buddha Beach Bar Insect Chorus - as is the case in many rural places or islands in thailand, the abundant insect life creates a magical audio backdrop to everything. i can, and have, listened to this sound or sounds like it, for hours. this particular recording was captured while enjoying a drink on the beach at a small bar not far from our cabana.

[Ko Phayam] Cabana Outdoor Ambience - as close to a recording of the word ‘tranquility’ as i’m ever likely to achieve, this recording was taken in a hammock by the beach on the andaman sea, near our cabana on ko phayam. laying in the shade with a cool breeze blowing gently, this was a magical moment for sure.

[Khon Kaen] Airport Terminal Announcements - flight announcements on a busy day at the airport, on our way back to bangkok. nothing particularly special here, but i rather liked the way the harsh loudspeakers echoed around the cavernous airport terminal.

[Ao Nang] Golden Beach Resort Night Ambience - after a chaotic, stressful, and sweltering journey to ao nang, i took a much needed break to stroll down to the beach near the hotel and capture some peaceful waves set to a nice insect background. as is so usually the case in my asian field work, the ubiquitous motor scooters occasionally ruin the vibe. on my way back i managed to capture a pretty excellent sound of workers cleaning the entire kitchen with high pressure hoses; not something i expected to hear along the way back to my room.

[Ao Nang] Rai Leh Beach - personally i found the rai leh beach experience a bit overhyped. the beach was fine, but the most amazing part was the incredible insect noise emanating from the trees. unfortunately, as it so often is, motorized transportation (boats in this case), make it impossible to get a clean recording. i did my best here.

[Krabi] Krabi Night Market Part 1 - we had a fantastic time wandering around the krabi night market, here i was able to record a band of children playing some gamelan like music to raise money for their school. i’d say the youngest kid was five, and the oldest couldn’t have been older than ten or so. after wandering around a bit, i found a young thai woman in her twenties doing acoustic versions of american pop rock music. it certainly added to the surreal circus like vibe of the entire place, i’ll say that.

[Krabi] Krabi Night Market Part 2 - moving away from the music areas, this recording focuses more on the crowd and the vendors, until finally we come back around to the child band, still playing away…is it the same song? a different song? does anyone know (or care)?

[Krabi] Krabi Night Market Part 3 - the evening before we went to the night market, we’d eaten at a vegetarian indian restaurant in ao nang that was excellent. the next night, at the market, we were quite surprised to find the owner and several staff members on a stage droning out some serious hare krishna jams. i feel like there were about twenty people onstage blissing out, but we were eventually swept away in the crush of people back to our waiting taxi, where we encountered a whiteboy dread posse jamming out on digeridoo, because that’s what they do in this part of the world.

[Ao Nang] Beach Ambience - for some people, ao nang is a commercial hell of loud bars, cheap restaurants, strip clubs, and so on. this is a recording made while walking down a beachfront road from dinner, and is pretty representative of the collision of commerce and nature in this area.

[Ao Nang] Golden Beach Resort Air Conditioning Machines - i’m always a sucker for large industrial drones. in this case it’s provided by a bank of industrial air conditioning systems at the hotel. i like the way it underpins the pulsating insect noise that’s always present.

[Ao Nang] Golden Beach Resort Birdsong - for some unknown reason there were captive birds in cages all over the resort grounds. i’m not a huge fan of putting birds (or anything) in cages, especially when there are several outside my hotel room and the birds are awake well before i am. every day it was very annoying to have to wake up to this sound, but i’ll admit it makes for a compelling recording, listening to these pretty pretty birds gossiping with each other.

[Ao Nang] Ko Phi Phi Boat Tour Departure Dock - “go to ko phi phi” they said, “its where they filmed ‘the beach’” they said. i mean, yeah yeah. it’s a thing to do, and a not entirely unpleasant one at that. unfortunately, the batteries in my recorder died literally seconds after i captured this recording of the chaotic scene at the departure dock, so i am inherently grumpy about the whole thing. i missed plenty of sweet recordings that day. the beach was also very beautiful, so the collective urges are, for once, right and you should go.

[Ao Nang] Sweet Monkey Restaurant (Thai Radio) - this was a fantastic restaurant with some of the best vegetarian food we ate on this trip. just a shack off the side of the road, with one of the most happening radio stations playing in the background. i literally couldn’t get enough of the music they were playing, it was all so great! i could have just recorded this all night long. the owner was a delight, and there was a little dog that was adorable, and the whole scene was pure magic.

[Ao Nang] Golden Beach Resort Rainstorm - for some inexplicable reason there was a motorcycle (not motorbike) festival in ao nang the day we were leaving to return to bangkok, so these bastards were driving all around the night before, and seemingly all staying in our hotel. my loathing of motorcycles knows no bounds, so you’d better believe that i was thrilled when a rainstorm blew in and got all those people off their bikes. i missed most of the big thunder, unfortunately, but i was just so happy to have a night with no goddamn motorcycles.

[Krabi] Airport Departure Deck - the krabi regional airport is basically two cavernous buildings, and you can bet that there is some fantastic reverberant noise in the place. i wandered around the international deck for some time recording the general vibe there, since it’s the larger and more reverberant of the two buildings. 

the recordings are freely downloadable and may be used in film or other media under a creative commons attribution share-alike license. credit is required, distortion encouraged.