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Sound from a Town

Sound from a Town

By: Sound from a Town
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About this listen

A collection of natural urban sounds. Field recordings, audio walks, features. www.soundfromatown.com2025 Social Sciences Travel Writing & Commentary
Episodes
  • Euston Station Platform
    Nov 2 2025

    The electrical hums, mechanical whirs and cavernous clatters of Euston station platform is the sound bookending a journey to or from London. You're often out of it far too quick, though, either to sit on the train where these sounds are cushioned, or into the waiting area full of the sounds of human chatter, heels at a canter, the clacking of suitcase wheels, and the piped announcements. On Saturday 1st November, I went down onto the platform very early to wait next to my train and sat with the sonic signatures you're only otherwise likely to hear either in a rished passing visit or if you can sneek down early yourself. Maybe next time you're in Euston and you're looking up at the boards with hoards of other people shifting their weight to the other leg to find a bit of comfort while waiting and awash with the dominant sound of human conversations, listen to this and instead hear what the machines down the ramp are talking to each other about.

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    16 mins
  • Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on a Sunday Morning
    Jun 29 2025

    The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, designed by Thomas Telford is the highest canal aqueduct in the world. If you're not sure if you're scared of heights or susceptible to height vertigo, it's a good place to find out.

    I got speaking to a lovely man walking his dog whilst recording this. He told me that the arches were built around bales of sheep wool to keep the weight of the 38 metre high arches down as well as hold the structure while building them. He also mentioned that lanolin, the waxy substance that keeps sheeps wool waterproof, was used to seal the canal. Doing some reading online, ox-blood was also used in the mortar to help prevent it crumbling away during freeze-thaw cycles. I'm not sure how many sheep were sheared and oxen bled for the constuction of the aqueduct, but imagining these 220 year-old animal materials impregnated throughout its structure didn't help much when walking back across it.

    Anyway, in this recording you can hear blackbirds, flycatchers, thrushes, wrens and chiff chaffs, as well the occasional 'Morning!' as people walk or cycle by. There's also the occasional drip from the canal and the constant rumble of the River Dee below. We end with the sound of a narrowboat turning its engine back on after completing the 307 metre journey over the valley.

    Recorded at 8am, Sunday 29th June.

    www.soundfromatown.com

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    25 mins
  • Solstice Sunrise in Dibbinsdale Ancient Woodland
    Jun 22 2025

    Dibbinsdale is a site of special scientific interest near Bromborough on the Wirral, cradling the river Dibbin passing through. I arrived at around 4am and set up, having never been before. With it being ancient woodland, I was expecting to hear weird and wonderful birds for this dawn chorus – almost as if stepping into a time machine. This was most likely ignorance on my part, as I was instead met with a familiar burble of suburban birds. With the woodland truncated to the east and west by a trainline and the M53 respectively, and surrounded by houses, this is probably no surprise. I aim to go again, though, as in a sleep deprived state I left the headphones too close to my EM272s when I stood back from the set-up which caused feedback. This recording is instead from the back-up BP4025.

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    22 mins
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