SONOHR, Sanyo, Bern; field recordings feb. 2026
overstimulated on zürich airport tram 1
claire and i landed in Zürich on Friday morning. we packed into a shuttle from the gate to customs, on which I experience sensory overload as a child wailed and the airport played an idyllic welcome message from Heidi overhead. another train ride took us to Bern, we dropped our bags at the hotel and checked off a few of the things that are on the Bern wikipedia page- the Zytlogge, Kindlirfresserbrunnen, a stroll through the old town. eventually we found our way to the park in the shadow of the Berner Münster. it was 62 degrees farenheit, a temperature I have not felt in months. the park was full of people enjoying the sun - playing pétanque, meeting friends, drinking summery drinks. i wondered what the weather has been like in Bern recently, if everyone here was as starved for sunlight as I was. we sat for a while, then explored more. i took a recording of someone playing an instrument of the lute family in the plaza in front of the church.
lute like instrument in the platz 2
On Saturday morning, we took part in the “Ear Lesson” workshop led by Phoebe McIndoe oriented towards “objects as gateways.” i’m very drawn to this line of thinking - physical and auditory tokens. i collect a lot of stuff off the ground. business cards, coat check tickets, sugar packets, matchbooks, coasters, stickers. audio is a way i think i can reciprocate this collection of “taking” with a collection of “giving.”
the “Ear Lesson” was about following rather than fighting thoughts. we ended the writing exercise by using our own words to construct a found poem, and then walked around a park with the goal of noticing what we were noticing. i sat for a while and sketched some graffiti while crows built nests in a big tree above me. i really appreciated the way Phoebe designed this workshop to create a collection of mementos - a page of writing, found objects, crafts connected to the process of finding.
crows building nests on saturday morning 3
Sanyo was one of ten international shorts selected, and one of four presented on Saturday. i chose a seat in the way back. my intention was to make some notes on the other pieces. ultimately i just kinda scratched some words that came to mind.
De ambulantes soy, by Vanessa Valencia Ramos and Gerardo Flores Hidalgo. direction. ambulante ambiente, passing by, blocks, movement measured by sound, altavoz, round trip sound, silbadas.
Sables, by Sam Cornu and Camille Protar. intimacy, familiarity, mental space. relation, proximity. questions and curiosity. silence, lingering, intrusion. explanation. nice synth.
My Fucking Diary, by Sarah Frosh. encounters. repetition, sentiment. spiral spiraling. self-constructive, hot shower, cold shower lukewarm shower. rejection liberation reflection repetition.
i'd make this piece a lot differently if i were doing it today. it's nice to encounter where i was not too long ago, if a little nerve wracking to do so in a public presentation.
we stuck around Kino Rex until the “Ascents and Descents” audio walk began. this was a nine-stop, self-directed audio walk that had been collectively produced the day prior. quickly we were by ourselves. the pieces created for the audio walk narrated distinct times, distinct places, distinct observations of environments distinct but related to ours by prompt. i took a couple recordings along the way. i liked this pairing, the first from my zoom recorder which picks up the city bells faintly in the background and the second from my tape recorder, a few minutes later and much closer.
bern bells, half past six or so 4
in the evening we returned to the Berner Münster for a choral concert. the pieces ranged from composition in the 1600s to 2025. we paid for the cheap seats with an obstructed view of the choir. in fact, our view was so obstructed that we were facing a different direction from almost everyone else in the church. luckily the acoustics were amazing. it was really cool to hear 500-year-old music in an 700-year-old church. the sustain on the notes was really unbelievable, at times i could feel it in the air. i recorded a bit of it. this is the world premiere of Dum Aurora by Ivo Antognini, from my recorder tucked into the recesses of a church pew. one sound i wish i captured better was sound of the audience shifting in their chairs between pieces, letting out coughs and trying to find a comfortable spot on the hard wood pews.
tenebrae choir opening piece @ berner münster
the day wrapped up back at the theater with Pete Hazell’s “radio cabaret,” Radio Limbo, a live performance about the twin states of transmitting and receiving. Being “in limbo,” in this case, the surrealism of being reached by sound of unknown origin on its way to unknown destination. “audio plunder.” here's some of my audio plunder.
genny cream ad aired on WRTI, october 27, 1980
The above excerpts are all part of my tape diary, the extended version can be heard below. ty for reading! bye bye ciao tchau ingat adios 🟧
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