Prominent Sounds Heard in Six European Villages

Text: Kaj Ahlsved, Anne Tarvainen & Meri Kytö. Picture: Meri Kytö (Nauvo)

Prominent Sounds Heard in Six European Villages presents a series of listening sessions conducted as part of the SOMECO project’s fieldwork in spring 2025. The video brings together six ten-minute segments (plus opening credits), each capturing the sonic character of a different village.

The work builds on the Prominent Sounds Heard method, developed by Canadian and Finnish soundscape researchers. Following this method, a researcher selects a location and carefully writes down all the sounds perceived over 30 minutes. The aim is to translate sensory experience into words, producing a rich, subjective account of how a place is conceived and lived. These descriptions can also support other research methods, such as interviews, by grounding discussion in detailed, situated observations.

The sessions in this video revisit villages studied in earlier projects (Five Village Soundscape, 1975; Acoustic Environments in Change, 2000) and feature 10 minutes of an intensive listening from Skruv (Sweden), Bissingen (Germany), Cembra (Italy), Lesconil (France), Dollar (Scotland), and Nauvo (Finland). Each location within the villages was carefully chosen to highlight distinctive aspects of local soundscapes.

While the method does not typically require audio recording, the SOMECO project incorporated recordings for documentary purposes and to explore differences between human listening and microphone capture. The visual form of the video, collage-like sequences of images, draws inspiration from David Hockney’s photographic work.

Credits

Listening, recordings, photos, descriptions:
Kaj Ahlsved (Skruv, Cembra)
Anne Tarvainen (Bissingen, Dollar)
Meri Kytö (Lesconil, Nauvo)

Video collage & editing:
Anne Tarvainen

Literature

Järviluoma, Helmi & Kytö, Meri & Truax, Barry & Uimonen, Heikki & Vikman, Noora (eds.) 2009. Acoustic Environments in Change &Five Village Soundscapes. TAMK University of Applied Sciences & University of Joensuu. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-7266-82-3

Kytö, Meri 2013. “Kuunnellen koettu Istanbul”. Kaupunkien estetiikkaa. Anne-Mari Forss & Tarja Rannisto. University Press of Eastern Finland, 105–122.