Awakening of a village

Text: Heikki Uimonen

Tuesday was well spent walking and listening.

The SOMECO team divided the village into three areas, following the documentation of the listening walks in 2000 (see picture). We visited the areas five times a day, starting at 07:00, following the same route repeatedly. Each walk took about 30 minutes. Pencil and paper was used for documentation. No digital equipment was used this time, except for one walker who decided to dictate her observations to a smart phone app, in order to immerse herself in the sonic environment without disturbing the act of listening with writing.

Early morning walks were astonishingly rich in sound, starting with the footsteps of a walker clearly audible on various types of paving and gravel. Not much light in this part of the world, so the first comments had to be jotted down under the streetlamp before dawn. A local hinge manufacturer was already using a rhythmically interesting machine, accompanied by the sound of water from the surface sewer beneath the walker’s feet. A little disconcerting, as it’s not exactly something you’d expect to hear in the supposedly cold Nordic countries in February.

On the construction site next to the factory, you could hear sounds of workers and the rumble of the diesel engine of a crane transporting building elements. Apart from the rhythmic thumping of the factory, another sound has remained the same. The distinctive level crossing signal heard at 7:15 a.m. is identical to those documented in 2000 and 1975. The diesel trains and their chattering passengers of the latter recording are long gone.

Year 2000 preliminary plan for listening walks