GOLDEN FLOWER MEDIA SONIC LIBRARY
SONIC BANGKOK is an audio expedition through the streets, alleys and waterways of Bangkok. The recording is an audio adventure, kind of like traveling, kind of like listening to an old radio show without the narration. Running time: 43:00 min.
$12.99 USD
FREE SHIPPING!
worldwide
Bangkok is known as Krung Thep in Thailand. It's also known as the city of angels. Buddhist temples are on nearly every corner, the air smells like diesel, like heat, like jungle and like great food. Thai people will put a motor on anything that moves and drive it through traffic as thick as a presidential motorcade. A flat wooden cart with two wheels out front and something that looks like a car engine strapped to a unicycle on the back is as likely to be seen barreling down the road as anything else. The place is as old school as old school can be. It's also a sprawling wired metropolis feeding off billboards, cell phones and technology. Sukhumvit road pulsates to the sounds of buses, the voices of native Thai folks and the whistles of standing cops that look like stormtroopers.
Sonic Bangkok is an audio expedition through a place that's a world unto itself. A motorcycle taxi driver kick starts his bike, you jump on the back, within minutes your scared to death because he's weaving in and out of whatever space he can fit that thing into. Street vendors are everywhere. Buddha is everywhere. Monks in mustard colored robes are everywhere. Long tail boats, canals, river taxis, sky trains, tuk tuks, wats, skyscrapers, elephants, birds, crickets and Thai food are everywhere else. It's the Venice of the east. You always get where you want to go but you hardly ever know how you got there. The recording is an audio adventure. Kind of like traveling, kind of like listening to an old radio show without the narration. There's plenty of room for the imagination and wondering.
Bangkok Rain is a field recording made during a mid day rainstorm in Bangkok. The recording captures simple rain and intense downpour. When it's simple and musical you can still hear a few birds, when it's intense and overwhelming the birds go quiet. Running time: 47:00 min.
$12.99 USD
FREE SHIPPING!
worldwide
There may be a crack before it hits and there may not be. It might happen without warning in the middle of a hot sunny day. The sun disappears. The sky goes gray. Thai vendors start to look like pit crews at a car race, their movements are orchestrated and syncopated. Awnings are rolled in. Garage doors that cover store fronts at night are rolled down. Food carts are rolled away. Lazy people get up off the street. Ladies scat. Water pours. The city comes to a halt for a few moments or part of an hour. Streets go from bustling and lively to lonely and deserted. Most of the time you don't even notice because you're running for cover yourself. Something about getting out of the line of fire is instinctive, whether it's in a war, food fight or rainstorm, you just feel it. You run. You get out. You take cover.
The mystery sets in after the rain dies down. The panic that was everywhere is gone. The people who disappeared between buildings come back. Colors come back. Store fronts that fell from sight come back. Bangkok rain is tropical rain, monsoon rain, a fire hose in sky rain, the type of rain that makes you laugh as you run. From time to time there may be a drizzle or a day long raining, but mostly, cloudbursts in this part of southeast Asia come to wash away the smog and soot that hangs in the air. No time is wasted. The sky gets rinsed, the streets get cleaned and then it's business as usual. Bangkok Rain is a recording of simple rain and intense downpour. When it's simple and musical you can still hear a few birds, when it's intense and overwhelming the birds go quiet.
Bangkok Birds is a field recording made during the morning hours in the Din Dang district of Bangkok. The recording captures the voices of a large assortment of birds in the middle of a modern jungle. Running time: 47:00 min
$12.99 USD
FREE SHIPPING!
worldwide
Din Dang is a district in Bangkok a little ways north of the city center. It's not much of a hot spot for tourists, there aren't many attractions once you get away from Victory Monument. It's a part of town where you're more likely to find local Thai's going about their daily activities than shopping centers or novelties setup to attract foreigners. But that's what makes it all the more interesting. Instead of being bombarded with never ending ways to spend money, you find yourself roaming the same streets, shops and restaurants as the natives. Having something to eat at a roadside restaurant after midnight is an experience that can hardly be explained, not because of the drama, just because. It's not unusual to see an elephant walk down the sidewalk while you're eating Pad Thai and fried cashews.
Getting outside the heart of the city reminds you that you're not only in a city that has been around for hundreds of years but that you're in a modern jungle. There are moments in the day when the sounds of motors fade and you can hear layers of animals. At night the alleyways are like corridors made up of crossfades. Twenty feet forward sounds different than twenty feet back and walking around a corner can change the tone completely. Bangkok Birds is a field recording that was captured during the morning hours in Din Dang. It's the time of day closest to quiet. The birds wake up before anyone and there's a small window of time where they can be heard above all else.