This is a podcast series of sounds, sonic sketches, and storytelling mostly around odd things, unpaired elements, and randomness.
The Hotel Lobby Series
The lobby is nothing, yet it is everything. It is passing through on your way to somewhere. It is waiting for someone or something. It is a place for meeting people and coincidence to happen. It is a place to relax and observe and to listen.
A lobby is a reminder that we are not on our way to somewhere, but we are right there where we are at the present moment.
Soundart is about deep listening and being closely aware of your surroundings and to let life slow down to its natural pace.
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For many of us travelling is still a scare or an impossibility. But who does not harbour a secret longing for the hollow footsteps across faux marble floors, the trolleys, the sound of the lifts, the coffee bar and piped in Kenny G with the Titanic theme song on a loop?
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A hotel lobby is a privately owned space serving as village square. In the capital of the world’s newest country the sterile fifth floor airconditioned lobby of a business hotel serves as the venue for shady deals, new encounters, coffee breaks for workshop participants of the ‘white savior industrial complex ‘( =Teju Cole) and many a US soldier in full uniform. Music ranges from casual jazz guitars to a winter wonderland. Languages are a mix of Tetum, Portuguese, indonesian and of course English.
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Built as a loveless playground for upstarts by modern day slavery.
A new middle class with aspirations of the past.
Inside it is so chilly. Outdoors the temperature is unbearable.
Football clothing seems to be the preferred garment for men.
Women in all black gowns.
Having tea together in the lobby cafe called Jones Social. All busy with their phones.
Music is canned and the design is eclectic which means: unable to make a decision so all will be incorporated.
Retro. Tech. Disco. Glam.
The sky outside is grey. As if there could be rain. But the haze is one of dust. Desert dust. Car fumes. Nothing is futuristic. Or at least not of a desirable future. Rather the most of all unsustainable ones. All built around the icons of capitalism of a former century. Opulence. Water and electricity guzzling.
Don't be fooled by the innovation stories that are spun by designer sites and trend watchers. Everything runs on diesel.
The high heels on marble. A bored staff member. Having to stand for hours on end. Hospitality requires femininity. No comfortable shoes for the reception desk lady.
Visitors come straight from the lookbook of international Instagram. Handbags, duckfaces.
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The lobby of an unnamed charming hotel on the shores of a tranquil green Mediterranean island still shows off remnants of its socialist past.
sixties style is what it would now be universally called.
or mid-century.
But as with virtually every other place on the planet, dull toned prefab furniture has found its way here, placed on a shiny tiled floor
the music drifting from ceiling speakers are romantic local classics and covers of international hits
The ever patient and friendly staff advise on check -in , room directions and nearby sights to the (inter)national crowd coming to spend a night or two.
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The lobby of an unnamed buisness hotel close to the train station in Okoyama, Japan
A large atrium with a beautiful flower arrangement centerpiece.
A group of travellers is getting acquainted
Sunrise in the jungle
When the sun rises over the tropical landscape of central Bali the sounds indicate the shift between night and day: the concert of frogs, crickets and cicadas subside, jungle fowl and birds wake up and a concert of humming, thrumming, buzzing and chirping starts. In the midst of all this the domesticated rooster functions as the most reliable of alarm clocks.
Tropical forests are under threat. In Indonesia alone, each year more than one million hectares of rainforest is cleared and forever lost. Corporate greed and weak laws allow the oldest living eco systems to become plantations, to be logged for wood or burned to create new farmland.
The occasional noise or muffle made by the recording equipment show the human presence in this delicate space -both as the rescuer and destroyer of the last areas of natural habitats.
Soundart is about deep listening and being closely aware of your surroundings and to let life slow down to its natural pace.