Me and Montreal bestest Chris DePaul have completed an interesting project called “Soncarte”.
The song was created by only using the sounds recorded by a group involved in Concordia’s Montreal Sound Map. I’ve written about it on my blog here. Participants in the Montreal Sound Map have been attempting to record sounds of the city, including everything from trains, waving flags, subway buskers, and converted electromagnetic waves.
We loved this idea and wanted to combine Montreal’s real sounds to tell a story through song – the result was Soncarte.
Listen to the song here on my Handkerchief Revival Myspace page.
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The Story of Soncarte
Soncarte presents a day in the life of Gabe. Gabe lives in Montreal and just as most Montreal natives do, Gabe wakes up in his apartment, takes the metro, goes to work and perhaps passes through a park. Gabe hears things that he’s realized many others do not. Doctors don’t really know how to diagnose him – they say he’s partially deaf but he just thinks he hears the sounds of electronics much louder than the average person. Hisses and hums dominate his life, avoiding a lot of electronic devices used on a daily basis. But some days, through the technological storms of a modern city, he is the sole audience of his own unique arrangement.
Gabe wakes up to the sound of his fan whirling above his head and his clock lightly ticking in the kitchen. On his walk to work, he passes by an elementary school that is kitty-corner to a depanneur and a late-night pharmacy. Over the years, Gabe has been able to find relief by avoiding certain routes and preferring others that don’t aurally annoy his day. He usually puts on his iPod in the metro to drown out unwanted noises.
Work is tolerable at the National Archives on Rue St. Hubert and de la Gauchetiere – legal folders and drilled metal shelves work well. He just has to tolerate the buzz of the office’s fluorescent lights. On his walk home, he passes by full-massed flags outside of Berri-UQAM metro and enters into the station. This is often his favourite part of the day. A warming consonance greets him before he catches the train and returns to his apartment for what he only hopes to be a night of silent dreaming.
