The port had never left
For the last three months I am recording the Venetian harbour in Chania. Unfortunately, a great part of it's soundscape has been degraded over the years by the tourism development. However, there are still some acoustically rich and animated spots around the area, covering a wide band of the listening spectrum. Some have their own tempo and phase shifting properties depending on the volume and the direction of wind respectively.
One of the most acoustically interesting spots, is the second wooden dock when walking down from Neorio Moro towards the harbour centre. There you get the feeling that you are inside the sea - and in a way you are. You are able to listen the sea more closely and you also get all the small sounds generated by the friction of the boats with the dock louder - either the buoys or the steel springs and the ropes.
Zooming in to each of these sounds you start to hear their individual performances. Using contact microphones I was able to capture some of these performances in isolation and extract MIDI information like pitch and velocity out of these recordings. Thus, I was able to transcend them to a different musical universe, where there it is possible to test countless of timbre variations and adjust pitch ‘imperfections’ based on specific music scales.
This is part of a wider project - hopefully it will expand to more areas within the city - in which I am trying to identify and capture the acoustic identity of Chania. Suggestions of unique acoustic places are welcome.
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