Thames — Download

By

Persistence of Sound

Since 2008, Ian Rawes' London Sound Survey has documented the changing sound of the UK's capital through a huge array of new field recordings, capturing every aspect of London life. Ian began making field recordings of London street life partly because he believed the city’s rate of change was quickening. The London Sound Survey went online in 2009 and has grown since to include much sound-related historical material as well as over 2,000 modern-day recordings.

The London Sound Survey's site allows visitors to travel back in time to explore London through sound, via archive sounds and descriptions of specific sound panoramas in history. As the project has progressed, the soundworld of London has changed, with familiar sounds becoming extinct imperceptibly, never to be heard again.

This album presents sound interactions along the River Thames that will surprise listeners with its diverse musicality, including the pitched, quasi-musical sound of Tower Bridge lifting up, recorded inside its Bascule Chamber, which houses the structure's huge counterweights swing whenever the bridge lifts.

Digital download only.