Sound from a Town

A collection of natural urban sounds. Field recordings, audio walks, features. www.soundfromatown.com

A cemetary next to a motorway junction 03/23/2025

A cemetary next to a motorway junction There's a Pentecostal Church on the Westminster - one of Ellesmere Port's suburbs - that backs onto a motorway sliproad. The sliproad was opened in 1972 to join up with the M53, a motorway that ran right through the middle of the Westminster and cut the community in two. I'm not sure what this cemetary would have sounded like on a Sunday before the M53 was built, but I imagine the low drone of errand-laden traffic wouldn't have dominated the soundscape as much as it does today. Recorded Suynday 8th March. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/35824495

An iron bridge over a train track 03/09/2025

An iron bridge over a train track This recording is bookended and criss-crossed by two different journeys. At the start, a train passes directly under the bridge, and at the end, a person walks a bike across it. Listening with headphones gives the latter a very eery quality - listening back the first time I had to look over my shoulder. The iron bridge in question is between Overpool and Little Sutton train stations on the Merseyrail Network. Recorded with a Lom Geofon magnetised to the bridge itself, and two Clippy EM272s (A-B position) for a nice stereo image. www.soundfromatown.com /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/35592680

An allotment on the first warm day of the year 02/22/2025

An allotment on the first warm day of the year We're in Stamford Street allotments in Ellesmere Port again, this time on the first warm Saturday of the year. Before heading out I saw a bubmlebee out of the window, which I saw as a good omen and sign that everything's coming back to life after winter. The allotment was quiet, though, so perhaps everyone needs a couple more weeks to fully resurface. You do get to listen to activity on two plots, with one person trundling around clearing space for re-planting, and ducks, chickens and a bin fire on the second plot. Thank you to Andrea and Ann who let me record them pootling about. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/35388520

Hebden Bridge: Hebden Friends of Palestine 01/21/2025

Hebden Bridge: Hebden Friends of Palestine Here we meet Christine, who spends most weekends protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza from Hebden Bridge town centre. Christine was also one of the Greenham Women, who protested the arrival of nuclear cruise missiles to Berkshire from 1981 - 2000. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/34946715

Joe Massey at The Bull 01/06/2025

Joe Massey at The Bull Before paying keyboard and harminica for the brilliant Ellesmere Port band Oranj Son, Joe Massey took to the stage at The Bull's Head, a flat-roof institution, to perform renditions of Bach's Prelude in C Minor and Mozart's Sonata in F Major. Recorded on 14th September 2024 with a Zoom H6. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/34742675

Hebden Bridge: Valley Organics Workers' Co-op 01/05/2025

Hebden Bridge: Valley Organics Workers' Co-op The first part of a series of recordings around Hebden Bridge. In this episode you can hear from Chris, who helps run a workers' co-op in the town. Recorded on the 27th January 2024. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/34724240

Suburban dawn snow melt 01/05/2025

Suburban dawn snow melt Due to the weather being too trecherous to go anywhere else, here is a recording from a back garden of a subdued dawn chorus smattered with clumps of thawing snow falling from trees. The sound was captured from Meols, on the Wirral. Meaning 'sand dunes' in Nordic, Meols was once a settlement for Vikings and Romans. These days, the sleepy little coastal village is little more than somewhere to return home to after work - either at 5pm or at the end of your three score and ten. Captured at 7:30am on Sunday 5th January using two Clippy EM272 in an AB array, recorded into a Zoom F6. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/34724025

An Allotment Chicken Coop 08/01/2024

An Allotment Chicken Coop Spend some time with some chill chickens from Stamford Street allotments in Ellesmere Port. Clipped the mics to the chicken wire roof and left them for 30 mins. There may be standard background chat, the sound of planes, strimmers, cars, doors and windows closing or other suburban sounds, but the occasional cluck, trill, wing flap or the sound of the feeder helps to position you properly amongst the allotment plots. Recorded on 31st July at around 7pm. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/32382297

Goldfinches and a glass furnace 06/25/2024

Goldfinches and a glass furnace A recording of dawn chorus on Ince Marshes. The protected nature reserve sits in the Stanlow marshland now occupied by heavy industry. Some of the heaviest - oil refineries, chemical plants, glass factories. As I arrived, as well as the familiar orange hue felting itself to the cloud cover above the oil refinery, what struck me was the noise of the Encirc glass factory dominating the soundscape of birds waking up and having a stretch of their vocal chords. I was left wondering whether this din affects the sound of the birds, whether they sleep okay, whether they get used to it, or if they see it as positive compitition. Either way, this soundclash is a pretty unique one, and another way to show how the lives of wildlife, machines, and humans are inexorably entwined in this place. www.georgepowell.online /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31881467

Take five: Stop Off at Tebay Services 06/06/2024

Take five: Stop Off at Tebay Services Apparently the most beautiful service station in the country. On the M6, Tebay offers artisan food, drinks, bits and bobs, and is set back from the motorway with views of the Lake District. This hark to nature, with products inside adorned with earthly tones, is situated in stark contrast to the greyscale tarmac, blue shiny signs and white and red scintillations of motorways. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31630842

Steam Launch Engine 05/31/2024

Steam Launch Engine Recorded at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port. I used the Lom Geofon attached directly to the engine, giving it a nice low burbling sound, and combined this with a single Clippy EM272 positioned quite close to give a decent crispness. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31548672

A Violent Ambience: BAE Systems, Govan 05/27/2024

A Violent Ambience: BAE Systems, Govan This episode was recorded just outside BAE systems in Govan, Glasgow, on a quiet, unassuming - but slightly windy - residential street. The day before I recorded, people protested outside to try and stop the manufacture and sale of weapons and other military technology by the British Company. BAE make Machines, bombs, and computerised hardware and software built with the aim of surveilling or killing people. This technology earned BAE around £23bn of revenue in 2023. As I walked past, I could hear whirring and buzzing and clattering from inside the incredibly secure complex. In Glasgow, BAE mainly build Royal Navy Warships, some of which circle the Mediterranean outside Palestine. The sounds in the recording, then, are created by the processes of building fleets of floating, weaponised assets of war. A low-key ambience of state violence, the rumblings of which are indistinguishable, for me, from their intended outcome - death and destruction. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31473817

Take 5: Barcelona street corner 05/26/2024

Take 5: Barcelona street corner It's 12:45 and 22 degrees on the 13th May. It doesn't seem that warm when you read it like that, but you and your mate have been walking around with your luggage for the best part of an hour, hungry, waiting to stumble on the perfect place to have the final proper meal in Barcelona. After walking past a couple of places that don't seem quite right, you spot two seats in dappled sunlight that beckon you over. The perfect place to sit down for a few minutes and look for food on Google Maps. You feel the weight lift from your feet and back as you sit down and. You decide to simply listen to the world go by. Location: 41°22'56.9"N 2°11'24.0"E /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31467812

Reverberations of the Clyde Tunnel Walkway, Glasgow 05/24/2024

Reverberations of the Clyde Tunnel Walkway, Glasgow Stopped to record the sound of cars heard through the echoic Clyde Tunnel Walkway. Decided to bring out the Lom Geofón to record the reverberations through the metal railings, adding a lovely tense drone. Recorded in 3 different locations and mixed together. www.georgepowell.online /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31450407

Anfield: Jürgen Klopp's Last Game 05/19/2024

Anfield: Jürgen Klopp's Last Game A mixture of a walkabout, asking fans their first memories and how they feel about Klopp leaving, as well as catching the singing of You'll Never Walk Alone at the start of the match. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31372352

Take 5: Car wash in Eccles 05/15/2024

Take 5: Car wash in Eccles Recorded binaurally in a Morrisons Car Wash in Eccles. Headphones highly recommended. 'Take 5' episodes are short and to the point: sit down, close your eyes, and imagine you're somewhere else for a bit. Picture copyright Google 2023. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31313402

Ballachulish dawn chorus 05/05/2024

Ballachulish dawn chorus Recording at the Ballachulish Slate Quarry, in the Scottish Highlands, on Sunday 5th May 2024. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31127888

Abandoned social club in Salford 05/01/2024

Abandoned social club in Salford Apparently the Pendleton Bowling and Social Club shut down not long after a pandemic, after the owners couldn't raise funds to keep it going. I used to live opposite, well after it shut, and with no other properly social venue within a 30 minute walk, even I missed this place. Kids run about in here, climb on the ledge outside, and chuck things at stuff. That's until a parent finds them and drags them away from the crumbling neighbourhood institution. Everywhere else in the building is pretty much pitch black thanks to boarded up windows, and aside from being light enough to film and record, there's something about this first floor bar area, where Christmas decorations were seemingly stored, where you can peer out on the world continuing outside of this pandemic snapshot, and where, like a deranged Jack Torrance, you can fill in the hubbub vacuum and empty, sodden sofas with imagined lively end of weekend conversations and old boys drinking mild in their Sunday best. Recorded on 28th April 2024. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/31066528

An Overflowing Derwent Dam 04/19/2024

An Overflowing Derwent Dam I took the long route to Derwent Dam, walking south down the Ladybower Reservoir, then along the sheep fields on Crook Hill and beyond, and back to the Dam via Hagg Side, recording bits as I went, and ending on a recording of the overflowing dam. Like most rushing water, it's very white-noisey, which I quite like. Derwent Dam was built in 1902, and the reservoir was used for practising Dambusters raids. I used 2xClippys, a geophone to record one of the streams up close, and an F6. Recorded on 11th April 2024. www.georgepowell.online /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/30796298

Egham under planes 04/15/2024

Egham under planes From Cooper's Hill in Egham I recorded the mixture of birds and planes. I didn't edit too much, as I wanted the 'natural' rhythm of the planes to be close to what it was on the day. The loudest planes are those that head east after takeoff due to them turning and heading pretty much overhead. Used 2xClippys and an Audio Technica BP4025 as I find the Audio Technica gives the tones I want for recording machines. Recorded on the 28th March from midday. www.georgepowell.online /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/30796383

Ally Pally dawn chorus 04/12/2024

Ally Pally dawn chorus Recorded at Alexandra Palace. Swapped places once while I was there. If you listen carefully, you can hear the screech of - I think - a hawk amongst the more common birds. Recorded on 24th March, 05:30. www.georgepowell.online /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/30796228

Feldstraße Bunker, Hamburg 07/10/2023

Feldstraße Bunker, Hamburg I recorded a bunch of sounds from different levels of the spiral starcase in the Feldstraße Bunker back in April. What you'll listen to is a non-linear edit of these sounds to try and convey the sense that the building is a living object, which is what I felt when I was in there. The bunker was used as a bomb shelter back in WWII, I believe. When I visited there was a load of rumbling and clanging construction going on outside which appropriately made it seem as though I was in the middle of a raid. The concrete structure seemed to allow not only reverberations of the sounds up the spiral staircase, but also the memories of the historic use for the building. www.georgepowell.online /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/27419046

A Sunday in Bedford 04/19/2023

A Sunday in Bedford An audio walk in Bedford on a Sunday, contrasting the sounds of St. John's Retail Park and St. John's Church. You can read a more detailed write-up in a blogpost on my website here: Recorded on 12th March 2023. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/26594325

Tottenham High Road on Match Day 03/15/2023

Tottenham High Road on Match Day Many businesses on the High Road thrive on match-days. Many don't. The businesses that suffer due to the council-enforced road closures, often barbershops, beauty salons and off-licenses and other retail, still have to pay the same business rates, despite many customers staying away when Tottenham play at home. In some instances, the till can be down more than half compared with a non-match day. Here you can listen to Mem, who works in an off license, talk about how things have changed for him since the new stadium was built. You'll also hear fans talk about what they do once they hit the High Road, and the sound of roads being closed and match-day ambience. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/26241309

Westminster 03/07/2023

Westminster A walk around Westminster on Thursday 19th January. From 12 bells to 1 bell. Along with the sound of Big Ben, you can hear me get shouted at by police speeding through Parliament Square and the sound of many gates being closed and locked. There were also people protesting outside Downing Street, and I spoke to Geza Tarjanyi, who made headlines a week later for pushing Matt Hancock in a tube station. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/26154090

Nurses Strike: Outside University College London Hospitals 01/19/2023

Nurses Strike: Outside University College London Hospitals Listen to what nurses are saying and singing on the picket line outside UCLH in Camden. Recorded on 19 January 2023. Location: 51.5251963, -0.1367342 /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/25659345

Tynemouth Road Mid-Tunnel Ventilation Shaft 01/07/2023

Tynemouth Road Mid-Tunnel Ventilation Shaft Recorded in April 2021. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/25534884

Snow in North London 12/12/2022

Snow in North London A short walk during the heavy snowfall on the 11th December 2022, where children and adults ventured outside to make a mark on their brand new surroundings in the form of footsteps, scooped handfuls, and snow angels. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/25300998

A walk from Seven Sisters Road to Clissold Park 12/03/2022

A walk from Seven Sisters Road to Clissold Park I forget when I did this, maybe late January 2021. Location in the title. /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/25209282

Middlesbrough Train Station 12/02/2022

Middlesbrough Train Station Recorded at 19:56 on 3rd November 2022. 54.57901, -1.23466 /episode/index/show/8b5f4000-b287-4235-bd74-367a06a50521/id/25202490

Sound from a Town

TOPICS