chronoskin

A numbered catalogue of sound recorded on foot. Nothing here plays by itself.

238 recordings of water, wind and machinery, in the order they were made.

Each one has a number, a place, a length and a sentence. That is the whole catalogue. Take any of them and use it for whatever you like.

Browse by place or start at the newest number

Newest numbers

238

Sluice gate at slack water

Forty seconds of nothing, then the chain takes the weight.

Brack Sluice, 2017-03-14, 6 min 12 s

237

Pump house, door open

The old diesel on a cold start, recorded from the step.

Cold Harbour, 2017-03-09, 11 min 40 s

236

Reeds in an east wind

Two microphones a metre apart, one of them too close.

Alder Fen, 2017-03-05, 18 min 03 s

235

Rain on a tin boat

Upturned on the bank, with the recorder underneath it.

Eel Bridge, 2017-03-01, 9 min 27 s

234

Level crossing, last train

The bell, the barrier, four coaches and a long tail of rail hum.

Dunlin Road, 2017-02-24, 3 min 51 s

233

Ice leaving the drain

A hydrophone under the footbridge on the first mild morning.

Alder Fen, 2017-02-19, 14 min 30 s

232

Sheet piling in a swell

The harbour wall ringing like a slack drum, twice a minute.

Cold Harbour, 2017-02-12, 8 min 44 s

231

Wires in frost

A contact microphone on a fence post, before the sun reached it.

Dunlin Road, 2017-02-05, 12 min 10 s

230

Eel trap, lifted

Water running out of wicker, and one remark from the man lifting it.

Eel Bridge, 2017-01-31, 2 min 36 s

Latest notes

  1. Index
  2. Places
  3. Alder Fen

Alder Fen

Every recording made on the fen since 2014, newest number first.

  • 71 recordings
  • 14 h 06 min total length
  • 58 checked
  • 212 kilometres walked

Checked by ear 58 of 71

No.TitleRecordedStateRepliesMinutes
236Reeds in an east wind2017-03-05checked418.1
233Ice leaving the drain2017-02-19checked1114.5
229Geese over, twice2017-01-30clipped27.8
221Fog, with a distant generator2016-12-11checked922.0
218Footbridge, loose plank2016-11-27withdrawn01.2
214Drain pump, heard from the far bank2016-11-06checked69.4
209Starlings going to roost2016-10-23checked1726.3

About the place

Four square kilometres of reed and cut drain between the sluice and the railway. There is one path, two bridges and no shelter, which is why most of these were made in a hurry.

The best hour is the one before the pump at Cold Harbour starts. After that everything on the fen has a hum under it, and you can find it in number 236 if you listen on the right.

Next place along the drain

No recordings from “Fenny Lock”.

Nobody has walked there with a recorder yet.

Back to the index
  1. Index
  2. Alder Fen
  3. 236

236. Reeds in an east wind

Alder Fen, 2017-03-05, 18 min 03 s. Two microphones a metre apart. checked

Notes by the maker

The fen is loudest when nothing happens

This one was made from the second drain bridge with the recorder on the rail, and the knocking at four minutes is the loose plank of number 218, not a fault in the file.

What you are hearing

  • Reed heads, close, on the left.
  • The pump at Cold Harbour, far off, on the right.
  • One heron, once, at 11 min 20 s.

Getting the file

Every recording is one plain file named after its number. Fetch this one with get 236.flac and check it against the length in the table above.

Asked for by the maker

Received. Your correction to number 214 will be read this week.

Not sent. The correction below has no address to answer to.

Send a correction

That is not an e-mail address.

Plain text. Line breaks are kept; addresses become links.

  1. Index
  2. Notes

Notes

What went wrong, what was bought and what was learned. 64 notes since 2014.

Newest replies

Jonas Pell on the tea strainer: mine rusted in a month. Use a brass one.

Marit Aas on ten seconds of silence: it is also how you find the hum in your own cable.

Halvard Moe on batteries: keep the spare in an inside pocket and swap at the bridge.

Before you reply

Replies are read first

Every reply waits until Tove has read it, which is usually the same evening. Corrections to a recording go on the page of its number, not here.
  1. Index
  2. About

About this catalogue

Who makes it, how a recording gets a number and what you may do with one.

How a recording gets a number

It gets the next one, on the day it is made, whether it is good or not. Numbers are never reused: a file that is withdrawn leaves a gap, and the gap stays in the index.

  1. Walk. Record. Write the place and the time on the back of a hand.
  2. Cut nothing but the walk to and from the spot.
  3. Give it a number, a sentence and a length.

What you may do with one

Anything. Play it, cut it up, sell what you make from it. Nobody needs to be asked and nobody needs to be named.

What is not here

Pictures, maps, players, accounts. A file opens in whatever your machine already has.

What it is recorded with

Whatever fits in a coat pocket and survives being sat on. The list changes when something breaks, and every change is written up in the notes.

  • A hand recorder, bought used in 2014, dropped twice.
  • Two small microphones on a wire coat hanger.
  • A hydrophone made from a piezo disc and a jam jar lid.

Who keeps this

Tove Lindqvist walks the same nine kilometres most weeks with a recorder in a coat pocket, and answers mail slowly.

Marks used in the tables

Unread replies 12, a place Alder Fen, a number added this week new, and the state of a file: checked clipped withdrawn

The catalogue so far

YearNumbersHours
2017579.8
20168316.2
20156412.5
2014345.1

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