Mayor Bloomberg’s redevelopment plans for Coney Island were approved by New York City Council earlier this week. Critics claim the high rises, retail clones and upscale hotels to follow will ruin the spirit of the boardwalk, other say it will revitalize the city’s landmark. Either way, the votes are in, Coney Island will never be the same. Listen to Stephan Crasneanscki’s field recording captured in Coney Island, an audio artifact from the colorful, iconic ‘Peoples Playground’.
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Soundwalk collaborated with The Original Jazzy Jay on our BRONX: Hip Hop audio tour, winner of the 2004 Audie Award for Best Original Work.
This unreleased, unedited, uncut mix was originally created by Jazzy Jay to keep Soundwalk listeners entertained while taking the 6 express train back downtown after finishing the audio tour. We offer this, in three 10 minute excerpts, exclusively to our Soundwalk fans.
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Image: Sacha Waldman
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Soundwalk created the original soundscape of the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit in Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York City. Leaving the work of Nobuyoshi Araki we are introduced by these sounds to the film work of Subodh Gupta, the photographic work of David Levinthal, and the unique Jesus Christ back tattooed pigs of Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye titled “Jesus Love and 2 Handbags” .
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Original sounds recorded by Dug Winningham, and the main music piece titled “Reckless Burning” is especially written by Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter.
Photo of Wim Delvoye by Stephan Crasneanscki
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“…Even as someone quite familiar with Paris I experienced an incredible re-discovery of hidden gems on Soundwalk’s Palais Royal audio tour. This area covers the well-known gardens but also its arcades, passageways and the corridors that surround it. The variety of beauty, the shops and the architecture made travel in time. I happened upon an art festival occupying the gardens and a flamenco singer/dancer expressing their connection to this magic place…”- Hélène Z.
“… Même une Parisienne avertie peut redécouvrir sa propre ville et des quartiers. Tel fut mon cas en expérimentant le Sounwalk du Palais Royal, un quartier que je connais pourtant par coeur. C’est ce que je croyais, tout au moins. Ce quartier est connu pour ses jardins, ses arcades, ses passages et ses galeries qui l’entourent. La beauté des lieux et de ses boutiques accompagnée d’une bande sonore magique m’a entraînée dans un voyage dans le temps. Le Festival Quartier d’Eté a débuté dans les jardins, un prince du flamenco répétait… Magique !”
Paris Soundwalk: Palais Royal
Images: Hélène Z.
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Sound collage excerpt from a series of late night/early morning field recordings of Berlin’s nightlife. Noises, distortions, low frequencies, and quieter spaces… mostly recorded at Panorama, Week End and an underground bunker club.
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Image: Dug Winningham
Audio: Stephan Crasneanscki
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Marie Lechantre, a French instructor in the CEA global study abroad program, is partnering with Soundwalk to futher engage her students in the culture and language of France but offering them our Paris soundwalks.
Marie’s students will be invited to create something inspired by their soundwalk adventures via text, video, audio, photos and utilizing social media. Select contributions will be posted on Soundwalk’s blog.
Example of famous French figures featured Paris soundwalks: Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Serge Gainsbourg, Napoléon Bonaparte, Oscar Wilde, George Sand, Marguerite Duras, Godard, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Gertrude Stein, Henry Miller, Balthus, Delacroix, Danton, Marat, Picasso, Baudelaire, Camille Saint-Saëns.
Paris Soundwalks: Pigalle, St. Germain, Belleville, Marais, Palais Royal
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The following Chanel Mobile Art soundscape excerpt leads you to the work of video artist Tabaimo, onto conceptual artist Daniel Buren’s wall of light and arrives at an installation of Argentine artist Leandro Erlich, photographed here by Stephan Crasneanscki. Erlich’s Chanel Mobile Art video installation of a Parisian cityscape reflected in a black asphalt puddle is titled “Le Trottoir” (The Pavement). This soundscape excerpt accompanies the viewer to Erlich’s installation of projected reflections.
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Soundwalk created the original soundscape for the Chanel Mobile Art exhibit by Zaha Hadid, in Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York City. Listen to other Chanel Mobile Art soundscape excerpts here.
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A shout out to blogger Jax Lewis who highlighted Soundwalk’s Time Square, BRONX: Graffiti, DUMBO, Ground Zero, and Williamsburg Women’s Hasidic Walk as “Five New Ways to See New York” on her “art and culture without the fuss” blog Finding Five.
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Soak in the sounds of Varanasi, a city older than history and legend to imagine sailing with us as we navigate the River Ganges.
“[Varanasi] is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”
- Mark Twain
Check it: Varasani City of Light Soundwalk and INDIA: Soundscape
Images: Stephan Crasneanscki Audio: Soundwalk
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“On Bastille Day (France’s remembrance of the 1789 Revolution) I took my bike to Belleville to explore this area of Paris, famous for its social uprisings in the 19th century, while listening to Soundwalk’s audio tour of the neighborhood.
Despite its gentrification, Belleville still has a melting-pot feel as a result of the cultures from North African and Chinese immigrants. Within a few blocks, I came across all 3 monotheist religions and a dozen cultures. Mosques and Muslim bookshops a few steps from kosher butcher shops and Sepharadic restaurants, a Pakistanese community church faces Paris’ cheapest greenmarket, street artists studios are next to Chinese dumpling canteens… my kind of revolution.”
-Victoria Jonathan (Paris, France)
Images: garbage can with Obama portrait in front of street artist Pedro’s studio, hidden courtyards where workers used to live, Boulevard de Belleville, Sepharadic café where old men drink mint tea and play cards, Edith Piaf’s hangout Café Folies, Café Charbon- where Belleville Soundwalk begins- and more.
Check it: Soundwalk Paris Belleville narrated by Florence Loiret-Caille (music by Spleen).
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