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The silent sound of ancient books (England)

from #StayHomeSounds (volume 2) by Cities and Memory

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Oxford lockdown sound recorded by Cities and Memory.

"The Radcliffe Camera is one of the most famous libraries in the world, and a centrepiece of the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University. It's a beautiful building that is usually surrounded by tourists, even relatively late at night, and it sits close to Oxford High Street, so there's usually a buzz of people but also a drone of traffic.

"Not tonight, though. Not during the Covid-19 lockdown. Tonight, you can clearly hear a different kind of drone coming from the building itself. In this recording we begin at the front of the building, and we can hear an air conditioning-style pulsing drone coming from the building.

"This is the sound of the air conditioning that's turned on at all times to protect the ancient and very valuable books inside the library. We walk around to the left where the air conditioning vent sits about an old-style ornate grating, and the pulse gets louder and louder, becoming almost industrial in scale - and you can usually barely hear it over the sound of the city!"

"One last surprise - as we stand over the grating to record, we can clearly smell the scent of old, leather-bound tomes drifting up from the grating - engulfed in the scent of ancient books, it's as if the library is giving out something of its essence to passers-by, even if its doors are currently locked to all visitors."

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from #StayHomeSounds (volume 2), released July 3, 2020

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Cities and Memory Oxford, UK

Cities and Memory is one of the world’s biggest sound projects, a global, collaborative sound art and field recording programme with the aim of remixing the world, one sound at a time. It covers more than 100 countries and territories with 5,000+ sounds and more than 1,000 contributing artists.
Thousands of field recordings, recomposed and reimagined by artists around the world. ... more

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