Sound Observations of the Urban Landscape.
Can you hear music in the chaos of city sounds? - When you separate audio from visual input, mundane noises can become quite intriguing.
Intended to put you to sleep with the sounds of New York. This is an Audio study of journeys through the city. Urban noise can actually serve as a soothing backdrop when visual overload is removed.
The series evolves with improved recording and editing techniques. Episodes #10 and #11 are the centerpiece for 2020.
- Robert Rodrigues -
Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com
Fourteenth Journey - Winter Break - Field recordings from the beach
I started publishing these episodes to document the sounds of New York City, especially the crazy and annoying ones. Searching for peace and intrigue in insanity and chaos. Reconciling my longterm love/hate relationship with NYC by finding beauty where most people hear grating noise.
Fourteenth Journey is clearly a departure. On a recent trip to South Florida I decided to spend time during morning walks on the beach capturing the sounds of nature. Mainly the waves and birds. The result is this peaceful sleep meditation with no jarring surprises or transitions. Just pleasant sounds to transport you to a nap on the beach on a warm day.
— Headphones are a must for the full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into sandy slumber. — Rob Rodrigues. Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com --- Instagram: @beach.108
#beach #meditation #soundtherapy #sleepmeditation #beachmeditation
3 Dec 2020
Thirteenth Journey - NYC Autumn Field Recordings - October / November
Its been a highly dynamic Fall season during this tumultuous year in New York City. This episode flows together in five sections:
1) TALK TALK - Verbal exchanges and monologues in Manhattan.
2) BROADWAY BOMBS - When a large political protest march and an illegal skateboard race converge at Broadway and Broome street, chaos ensues with thousands of skaters and demonstrators. The traffic snarls as a result and the audio is outrageous.
3) THE ELECTION - Sounds from inside a polling station to the reaction on the streets when the Presidential election results were announced. Cars driving on the Westside Highway and people gathered in Union Square, the excitement and celebration translates well in these clips.
4) SONIC INDUSTRY - Pings, pangs, vibrations, and tones. The sounds of workers and machines working around the boroughs.
5) PARK LIFE - NYC parks are always a gathering place for people from all walks of life. Multiple layers of sound blend together as a montage to create a peaceful finale.
— Headphones are a must for the full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber. — Rob Rodrigues.
Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com ---
Instagram: @beach.108
29 Sept 2020
Twelfth Journey - Dog Days
Audio clips from the warmest months, July and August. Rolling around New York City on my skateboard never fails, I always come across the craziest sounds. Whether it be the noise of city parks, random yelling, activist chanting, or industrial banging and humming. NYC is always producing an original soundtrack. — Headphones are a must for a full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber. — Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com Instagram: @beach.108
9 Jul 2020
Eleventh Journey - Total Uncertainty
Audio observations of NYC/Manhattan from mid-May through June 2020. A spectrum of sounds that came into my apartment or passed as I rolled around the city streets.
— Headphones are a must for a full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber. — Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com Instagram: @beach.108
6 May 2020
Tenth Journey - Tables; East River Park
— I recently discovered that the hundred or so metal tables lining the riverfront walkway in New York City’s East River Park unintentionally make melodious tones when hit in the proper way. A pleasant surprise that became a fascination. Each table seems to produce a unique resonating gong-like sound depending on the place, intensity, and frequency of how and what they are struck with. — The tenth brief but intense journey highlights these “banging tables” along with the other background noises that come with life in NYC during the global pandemic lockdown. The city parks that have remained open are a place to exercise and get some fresh air. They are also heavily policed to enforce social distancing and buzzing with joggers. It was quite humorous trying to be inconspicuous while capturing high quality audio clips for this episode. — Headphones are a must for a full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber. — Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com Instagram: @beach.108
5 Apr 2020
Ninth Journey - Shelter-In-Place
- Being cooped up in a small New York City apartment for three weeks can make a person extra sensitive to the tapestry of odd sounds common objects can produce. This episode is a musical composition of sorts though A-Tonal & A-Rhythmic. All sounds were recorded in a NYC apartment, they are either coming in through the window from the street or audio clips of the sounds that everyday household items create. The stay-at-home social distancing initiative due to the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to make the usual “sleep meditations” produced for this podcast way more tense and agitated for the 9th installment. HAUNTING. - Headphones are a must for a full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber. Contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com Instagram: @beach.108
4 Mar 2020
Eighth Journey - Spring Cleaning Symphony of Sounds
- As the month of March kicks into gear in NYC, daylight increases along with the temperature. This effects the psychology of people ready for warmer weather. - What better time than now to go through all of the unused audio clips recorded during the winter months and assemble them into a tapestry of sonic madness. - Predominantly featured throughout are the haunting sounds of a metal table in the East River Park. To my surprise when banged and drummed on in various ways, delightful yet scary sounds are produced. The table clips appear several times at different levels with complimentary (and not so complimentary) overdubs. - Headphones are a must for the full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber. - contact: rob@all-oneuniverse.com
23 Jan 2020
Sixth Journey - Midtown Mess
- Last Saturday’s predicted snowstorm turned out to be a bust. I still managed to take a walk in midtown and capture a few moments of powdered madness with interludes of peacefulness - Headphones are a must for the full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in and feel free to ease into city slumber. -
6 Jan 2020
Fifth Journey - 2020 Winter Skate
- After taking a holiday break in a tropical region, we are back for the New Year. Cathedral bells chime in the midnight hour on the 1st to start episode five. During the first few days of January I rode a cruiser skateboard through the streets of several Manhattan neighborhoods. The pace of the sound movement is greatly increased while navigating traffic. Things slow down only when stopped to reflect on something intriguing and how it blends in with the other city sounds that are always present in the background. - Headphones are a must for the full stereo experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in, and feel free to ease into city slumber.
13 Dec 2019
Fourth Journey - Slush In The City
- This week was rainy and snowy in the city. If you are not in a rush to be anywhere, bad weather can produce some pretty good sounds. Almost symphonic at times. This is a composite of audio recordings, some from my apartment window during a rainy rush hour, and others walking around the Union Square/Ironbound neighborhood. - Headphones are a must for the full experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in and feel free to ease into city slumber.
4 Dec 2019
Third Journey - Chinatown On A Cold December Day
- Even with a bitter wind, Chinatown still bustles. The food markets that open up right on to the sidewalk are doing business, selling fruits, vegetables, and seafood. On the occasional quiet block in this part of town, the constant noise recedes and is just a gentle sound in the distance. Very peaceful until you turn a corner and the volume is turned up again. The crescendo arrives toward the end as we approach the Manhattan bridge overpass with the roar of the trains high overhead and the market sounds below. - Headphones are a must for the full experience. Close your eyes, relax, let your ears take it in and feel free to ease into city slumber.
30 Nov 2019
Second Journey - Station to Station, Inside & Underground.
- Departing the #6 Train at 42nd street. This sound exploration takes us through the many bustling corridors of Grand Central Station, an epic hub in the center of New York. We then move back into the subway for quick shuttle train ride across town to the Times Square station. Walking the train platforms and eventually making our way to the below ground pedestrian tunnel that leads to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Port Authority is a complete dump when compared to the classic beauty of Grand Central. Lucky for listeners, the sound barely scratches that surface and the audio input is lively with many interesting textures. - Headphones are suggested, eyes closed for maximum enjoyment. Feel free to drift of into a sleep state.
27 Nov 2019
First Journey - 34th Street, River To River.
- A walk across 34th street in Manhattan, New York City. River to river, east to west. - Starting at the 34th street ferry landing and heading west, the first part of this walk is mainly traffic in the distance. The constant background noise of motor vehicles sounds like ocean waves on a quiet beach. - A few minutes in, around 3rd avenue, pedestrian chatter starts to pick up, fleeting conversations with no context as we head west. - Arriving at 5th avenue, the congestion becomes increasingly dense with the Empire State Building looming overhead. - The next corner is Herald Square where the Pre-Holiday hype starts to kick in. Christmas music is the crescendo as it momentarily blares storefront from Macy’s. - Somewhere west of 8th avenue, the only sign of wildlife, a lone Sparrow can be heard chirping from a tree with no leaves. - At 10th avenue, industrial noises come from above, this is the sound of overdevelopment under construction at the “Hudson Yards”. - Loud noises during the remaining stretch start to wind down with only a few pings & pangs. Distant sounds of small aircraft flying up and down the Hudson river fade in from above. - After crossing 12th avenue, the gentle crashing of Hudson River waves against the seawall brings this first audio exploration to a peaceful end.
Reach and audience
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
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