Created by: Sonia Killmann
Part 1
Hi, and welcome to the section of the Soundwalk that takes you by the river.
Take a look at the river, either as you’re sitting on a bench, walking past it, or looking down at it from a bridge.
Observing and feeling the current of the stream.
How fast is the river flowing?
Is the water level unusually high or low?
What color is the stream?
Does the current of the Kelvin seem calm or wild?
Can you see the glistening of the sunshine reflected in the river’s surface?
Or is the water as cloudy as the sky during a summer rain?
The river always sounds different. Each moment is unique.
The water is never still. And with each wave, a new sound, a new movement, a new life comes to the surface.
Every time we walk past the river, it graces us with its unique sounds, its timeless character and ever-changing motion.
Can you hear the white noise of the river?
Can you hear the sound of the distant cars that sound like the ocean, like waves crashing on the shore?
At this point, I encourage you to take off your headphones and simply listen to the water.
What does it sound like today? Does it compare to the recordings you’ve been listening to?
You have now completed the first part of the river section of the soundwalk. Please go to the next track to listen to the next section.
Part 2
I wonder what the river sounds like underwater?
What do the fish hear or feel as the rain drops on to the surface of the water?
Or the sunshine warms the riverbed?
When our head is underwater, we experience a new world of frequencies.
The outside seems muffled.
We can’t hear the wind in the trees
or the sound of birds flying overheard.
All we can hear is the bassy frequencies, echoing throughout the shore.
Times seems to stop as the river flows on.
Over centuries, we have mystified the waters.
Spoken of mermaids and other half-human, half-fish creatures that form a link between the mysteries of the underwater world and what we know above.
As we grab onto the slick stones that have been eroded over the past thousands of years and ended up here, at our feet.
As the river flows, the landscape changes.
Forming the veins of the city, transporting water from one end to the next.
And finally finding its way out into the ocean.