Sleepytime Brooklyn

Every since Hurricane Sandy hit New York I’ve been obsessed with quiet. I don’t think there is there is a direct correlation, but it something that has been on my mind.

The following is a short excerpt from a recording I made in late October from my apartment window in Brooklyn, NY:

There is nothing remarkable about this recording. It was made at the height of the evening rush and my block is shockingly peaceful. You can hear the sounds of light rain, a car pulling out, and tires spinning in a puddle of water. The relative quiet is striking to me considering I live in one of the largest cities in the world. When I think about some of the the common sounds in my neighborhood, it is shockingly calm. The summer brings the din or air-conditioners, birds, and insects. The fall brings rains and the tail end of birdsong, while the winter brings relative quiet. Every now and then you run into drunk dudes with snow shovels but that is an entirely different blog post.

This level of quietude in my neighborhood makes Brooklyn seem almost livable! But then again, our apartment is too small and years are probably being taken off my life from the layers paint on my walls. I’m guessing the first 50 layers contain the best kind of lead paint available on the market all those years ago.

Recording Geek Note: Rig consists of Schoeps CMC5′s setup for MS, with the MK4 as the mid. It was all tracked to a Sound Devices 744T at 24/96 with a Cooper CS–104 as a front end.