Noise Pollution in London is one of the city’s unnoticed dangers, people go about their day-to-day life not realising what the sound they are being exposed to can cause them. Noise pollution affects people in London in many ways, so I am going to break it down into parts.
Disadvantaged People
People who are less fortunate than others that live on busy roads surrounded by bus stops, cars, and trains are more likely to be exposed to constant noise at all times of the day. In more wealthy areas of London, the constant noise of traffic and transportation is blocked by trees or by living in well-built apartments, maybe even both. In areas of London where income is much less, greenery such as trees and better-built flats is more of a rarity. So the wall of noise is more likely to affect you. This can lead to stress and anxiety due to being exposed to noise at all times of the day.
2. The London Underground
The London Underground (The Tube) is one of the loudest and most common areas to be exposed to dangerous levels of noise in London. The Jubilee Line, Bakerloo Line, and Victoria Line have been known to reach upwards of 110db on some of their stops, which is 50db higher than what the average human ear should be exposed to without hearing protection. People living above tube lines that run on a night service have recorded it can reach 52db in their flat, 35db being the average for a normal night’s sleep according to the World Health Organisation. This can of course effect your sleep which can be detrimental to your mental health and normal life if not consistent. Even if the night tube was removed there would only be 5 hours of no noise, which is less then the average 8 hours of sleep recommended for people.
For creating this project I had a couple inspirations in particular, in one of my other blogs I wrote extensively about the influence of the Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and their song ‘The Dead Flag Blues’. So I will not repeat that here. I made a YouTube playlist with some of the pieces that influenced me which you can see here.
I am going to talk about 2 of the works from that playlist that influenced me and this work.
Clipping is an experimental hip-hop trio from Los Angles, California. Consisting of Vocalist/Rapper Daveed Diggs, and producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. The trio experiment with harsh noise, feedback, glitchy drums, and field recordings. Which are then mixed with incredibly detailed 3rd person perspective raps filled with concepts ranging from gang culture, torture, sex, space, being a killer in a horror movie, and more.
The trio released 2 albums based on the concept of horror. Both the albums finish with a field recording piece, on the first record ‘There Exists an Addiction to Blood’ they recreated the famous ‘Burning Piano’ piece composed originally by Annea Lockwood. On their second album ‘Visions Of Bodies Being Burned’ they did their own interpretation of Yoko Ono’s ‘Secret Piece’. Which we are going to be talking about.
Secret Piece was originally composed by Yoko Ono in 1953. How you go about recreating your own version of this is to pick a note that constantly plays throughout the piece. It is then accompanied by the sounds of the woods between 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. during the summer. This a very groundbreaking piece as these types of compositions during the time was very rare and how Ono takes the idea of a score and strips all the traditional elements and makes it more performative is very interesting. This is very reminiscent of John Cage’s scores, who was a big influence on Oko.
This recording was created by Jonathan Snipes, one of the two producers of the group. Jonathan is a very established film composer, sound designer, and field recordist. You can see a lot of this on his bandcamp. The piece has multiple tones played throughout, which were played from most of the features that feature on both records.
Considering there are so many contributors the track does not feel overbearing or messy, it is rather impressive that Jonathan managed to deal with all these different sounds and mix them to a point that flows well. There are numerous instruments creating tones like cellos, guitars, electronics, and drums.
I found this piece quite inspiring as it shows how to mix numerous field recordings, tones, and sounds together. When creating a sound piece primarily made up of field recordings it is very easy for the sound to get muddy. Listening to this track helped me realise how to properly go about piecing together sounds. Throughout the piece, the sounds change, giving the track a continuous breath of fresh air as it does not grow stale by repeating the same sound. For my piece, there are two main sounds, construction/traffic and the London Underground. These sounds are very loud and overwhelming so trying to find a way to mix them all can be difficult. Listening to this piece taught me to be patient and bring sounds in slowly, and not bombard the piece with every sound in that section at once.
2. 4’33 – John Cage
John Cage is a very influential figure in sound arts, though he came from a time where diversity among composers was few and far between, this work did influence a lot of people including myself. This piece is famously just silence… or is it? The intention of the composition is to slowly bring sound into the piece, but with that, the piece starts with silence. For me, it is learning the understanding of silence and its place in sound pieces. If used correctly silence can be louder than the loudest thing in that piece. It is all to do with timing. In the creation of my audio paper, I thought the use of silence could be a powerful way to get my point across. Since I am dealing with the topic of noise pollution, the use of silence could be a good way to show the listener how loud day-to-day London sounds actually are. 4’33 showed me how important the use of silence is, and taught me how to use it responsibly.
Noise Pollution is pollution primarily created by transportation (cars, trains, buses) and machinery (construction sites, vehicles). Noise pollution has a wide array of effects on human life, it causes anxiety, stress, and depression. Which can lead to other illnesses affecting you, like circulatory problems and heart problems. Noise pollution can also affect animals too, both on land and in the ocean. High levels of noise pollution can affect their navigation skills which affect how they hunt prey or keep themselves safe. This constant noise also affects animals like birds, that have feeding patterns.
Noise pollution affects people who are disadvantaged and live in areas where houses and apartments are built worse and have less soundproofing. These disadvantaged areas also have less greenery which lets noise come straight through to your house instead of having trees in the way to block it somewhat. Hearing constant noise even when in your house can cause anxiety and stress and an unenjoyable life. Because you can’t escape the constant noise.
Noise pollution is being picked up somewhat by the current Tory government, but overall is still ignored. Noise pollution is much more than an mp installing a noise camera to catch boy racers. This issue will also not be solved by setting curfews on venues like its a plaster, it overall is not doing much. As a country we need better-built and insulated flats for all, not just for people who can afford better-built flats, more greenery, and for car companies to make affordable electric cars that make less noise.
Field recording is the majority of sound in this piece, as all the sound stems from noise in the city. I started thinking about where to record, when to record, and how I should go about it. Below is a list of the places I will like to record. I have gathered them into categories of what noise I would like to record.
Elephant & Castle Roundabout – The Elephant & Castle roundabout is full of noise normally, but since a large construction site has started working, the noise is monolithic. This would be great to record to show how unbearably loud the city can be. Since it is also a roundabout there is no shortage of traffic and blaring noise, so this will be my recording location for the upper ground noise.
London Underground – The London Underground provides us with the most Dissonant, Unnerving, and loud sounds we hear in London. The Underground can sound like a horror movie soundtrack, especially when mixed with a crowded train where you cannot move. The Jubilee, Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines have been reported to be the loudest lines, exceeding 110db on some occasions. I’ve personally found the Jubilee line, and Bakerloo line to be the loudest in my experience, so I will be recording those lines. I will be recording using a Zoom H5 field recorder, as they are portable and have decent sound quality. I will also be running a contact microphone through the zoom H5, to record the vibrations of the train. These recordings, in particular the contact microphone recordings, could be manipulated in a daw.
This is the first draft of my instructional score, for my instructions I kept it clear but effective. Given the piece is very sound-heavy, with dense field recordings used throughout, and the theme of death. I thought having the listener sitting in darkness would be a good way to immerse them in the experience.
I want the listener to hear the piece in a way that suits them, either through headphones or monitors. Which is the best way to hear it. But I also proposed if the listener chose to listen to the piece they could play it through external devices, like a tape machine. The reason I decided this was to give a more unusual experience for the listener. Since we are so accustomed to hearing sound through traditional ways e.g. speakers, headphones. I thought giving the listener the option to listen through other devices could add another layer of connection and immersion. I chose the idea of the tape machine as since tape adds layers of hiss and warble that I find really works with field recordings and spoken word.
The third and final instruction is to just reflect on your own experiences and personal connections with this concept. Since the piece focuses on London in particular and most if not everyone in our class lives in London, everyone should be able to reflect on this concept of noise in London in some way.
When it comes to the script itself, I took the route of spoken word and poetry mixed with more factual information. One of my main inspirations when it comes to the spoken word is the Canadian post-rock group Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Godspeed You! Black emperors are famous for their use of spoken word, field recordings, long drones, and crescendos. The track that influenced me was their song ‘The Dead Flag Blues’.
This is a list of vocabulary that I can use in my audio paper. The use of these words is to help use words that can better discribe what I am saying without repeating words.
Noise – Peaceful and overwhelming
Dissonance – Unnerving, like somethings wrong
Reverberation – Floating in a space of good and bad
Resonant – Deep and Full
Silence – So loud and so quiet all at the same time, silence is as loud as noise.
I had a lot of fun with this project as I would like to pursue a career as a composer and having the opportunity to do that with this project was a very insightful experience for me.
One of the things I could have improved on was my planning, with better planning I could take more notes to allow me to write more blog posts and produce more detailed work. Otherwise, this has been my favourite project to work on.
I found this project enjoyable as over the last year my knowledge as an artist has grown exceptionally, I have learned a lot of new techniques, genres, and instruments, and have been able to apply what I have learned to my own work. I enjoyed being able to produce work that fits my personal style, I felt like I had a lot of creative control over this project and could fine-tune it to what I would like to accomplish with my career. I enjoyed the process of sitting down and analysing the scene because it feels like I have improved my analytical skills.
Overall, this project was not only fun but also helped me develop my skills as an artist and gave me insight into a future career path.
I started by importing an MP4 of the final scene of the film and dragging it into Ableton. I decided to use the field recording of the tumble dryer and reverse it. I found reversing it, and then transposing it down, added a layer of creepiness and discomfort. The field recording runs through the entire track, which I feel gives it a building tension as it carries on as the track gets busier.
Midway through the piece, as the scene continues to get tenser, I decided to add an 808 kick pattern. I did this to add more tension as it slowly speeds up and then goes back to its original speed, which creates more anxiety in the viewer. The kick is mixed quieter than most of the track but can still be heard, not overwhelming the rest of the sounds and acting as a heartbeat underscoring the piece.
At the same point as the 808 started, I used an Ableton synth from their Drone Lab pack called Parsec Breach. What I like about Parsec Breach is that it is a synth drone, but instead of being a low synth it has screeching highs that fit well in a horror movie. If the whole piece is just a low droning note it can get muddy and boring. It is important to explore all the pitch and frequency ranges you can to make the piece more interesting and dynamic. I mixed Parsec Breach so it gradually gets louder throughout the scene, so it gets more intense until it is unbearably loud.
Near the end of the scene I used a machine ambience I found on Ableton. I thought this sounded interesting and industrial which was exactly what I was looking for. I used an Ableton plug in called Drone Maker which transforms any sounds into a Drone. This gave the sound more ambience.
