Useless Sounds is an occasional series, an informal presentation of unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds]

A binaural recording, headphone listening recommended. 

I left Palazzo Venezia heading west on via Benedetto Croce, crossing Piazza del Gesu’ Nuovo, across via Santa Anna dei Lombardi, up via Toledo, and finally stopping at via Tarsia. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Walking via Benedetto Croce to Via Toledo, Saturday night, 19 January 2019

A binaural recording, headphone listening recommended.

Some chatter outside the bar, I head in, order a coffee, it gets made, I drink it, and leave.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Having an espresso at Bar Roma

A binaural recording, headphone listening recommended.

I walk around the market at Porta Nolana, past a table selling CDs blasting the song  "P' Secondigliano" by Geôlier and Nicola Siciliano, witness someone play fighting with a dog, and then walk down a side street of the Mercato neighborhood.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - The market at Porta Nolana, Napoli, and surrounding, 29 January 2019

A binaural recording, headphone listening recommended.

From via Tarsia, I head up the stairs of Vico Mastellone (pictured), up Salita Pontecorvo, across the parking lot/piazza of Largo Tarsia, up Salita Tarsia, to Piazza Mazzini, and head home down the Corso Vittorio Emanuele.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Walking up Salita Tarsia, Saturday night, 19 January 2019

A binaural recording, headphone listening recommended.

This soundwalk begins at Porta Nolana (where an earlier installment ended)in the Mercato neighborhood, not far from the port and the sea.  I meander through the Mercato, down alleys, in front of ‘votive edicole’, passed the house of Masaniello,  around the Chiesa di Santa Croce e Purgatorio al Mercato, into the Piazza del Mercato, passted the Chiesa di Sant’Eligio, and up via Duomo to Piazza Nicola Amore.
 
Masaniello was a young fisherman turned revolutionary who led the 1647 revolt against the rule of Habsburg Spain, who continually increased taxes on their colonial possessions to finance their perpetual wars and wasteful militarism (fighting with the French, the English, the Dutch, warring in Central Europe, and in the Americas. (The Catalans and Portuguese also rebelled in this period). Masaniello’s revolt didn’t last long, but this rebellion sparked the imagination of poets, composers, and future revolutionaries. Here, I retrace his steps and imagine the resonances with the past.

Today the Mercato neighborhood is still a working-class area, and full of the sounds of cars and scooters, of shopkeepers selling goods and workshops making and fixing things, of music and birds and dogs and people yelling and all the bustle of everyday life.  Towards the end, near Piazza del Mercato and Sant’Eligio, one can hear a few young Chinese girls singing songs walking to church with their father.  There are fragments of music coming from cars and home stereos throughout (including Giusy Ferreri’s “Le cose che canto”). And of course the never ending symphony of voices and engines.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - What's left of Masaniello's Mercato? 29 January 2019

For the past two months, this has been the view from my kitchen balcony. The other side of the apartment, my bedroom balcony, faces an interior courtyard.  This installment stitches together some commonplace sounds heard coming from outside the window: church bells, other church bells, people talking, people working,  car and motorino engines on nearby Salvator Rosa and Corso Vittorio Emanuele, sawing, birds over head.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Outside my Window

The sound of wind rustling a lemon grove in the Amalfi Coast.  Often the wind was so intense that it produced a low buzzing sound, reminiscent of a motor, vibrating loose window panes and the green netting above the grove.  You can also hear my footsteps, the rustling of dead leaves on the ground, and towards the end some electromagnetic interference from a lamp that I chose to keep in. And then the closing of the heavy iron door and the comparative silence of the warn interior. 

My partner's cousin came to visit us in Napoli, and as neither of them had visited the Amalfi Coast before we decided to take a weekend trip. Ravello is my favorite spot on the costiera, but it's too quiet in the off-season, so we rented a lovely home in a lemon grove in Minori, below.  Minori is relatively sleepy and small, but a short bus ride to Amalfi or a step climb up to Ravello.  In the pre-industrial past of Minori, our rental had been a bakers oven, and the original arched stone walls revealed the spot the oven had once been. Now, the terraced garden has been converted into a beautiful grove growing lemons, and some oranges.

The weather the weekend before and after was relatively mild for winter, often between 10 and 15 Celsius. The Weekend we were on the coast it was more like 2-7 Celsius, that is, very cold and extremely windy.  We certainly didn't feel as though we were sleeping in a former over.  The intense wind caused problems as far north as Rome and all south along the coast, downing trees and even killing three in a car accident.  The intensity of the wind created this aforementioned buzzing phenomenon that took me a while to place. As a result, I hope 8 minutes of wind noises is more interesting than it might seem at first blush.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] – Il Limoneto degli Angeli, Minori, Amalfi Coast, 23 February 2019

This relatively quiet recording was made in February in the Cimitero delle Fontanelle in the Materdei section of Napoli.  It has a pretty incredible history that I'd encourage reader's to look up for themselves, but the short version is that after using these caves to deposit the bodies of plague victims hundreds of years ago, during an outbreak that killed a massive amount of the large city's population, the caves were later converted into an ossuary for the bones of the poor.  Much has been written about Napoli's unique almost pagan-syncretic form of Catholicism that seems to include such odd rites as venerating skulls. But it's really a practice of care for the anonymous other, taking care of earthly remains that have no other guardian, hoping that this care and prayer will help their soul ascend out of Purgatory, and perhaps earn a little grace for the one shining the skull in the process. 

This was a very cold, rainy day not long after the windy weekend at the limonetto. It was drizzling rain outside, sirens in the dirance, very few people in the cimitero, footsteps echoing off the stone walls.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Per Grazia Ricevuta

This recording was made in Maiori, on the Amalfi Coast.  Maiori is the town next to Minori, where the Limonetto wind recordings from a few weeks ago were made.  Since 1971, Maiori has been famous for their Gran Carnevale Maiorese, a carnival celebration and parade leading up the the start of the period of Lent. The parade features elaborate floats of large colorful characters, scenes and sounds. Unfortunately none of that is captured here, as the strong winds resulted in the afternoon parade being cancelled. 

So instead in this soundwalk, the town of Maiori is relatively silent.  You will hear the wind rustling some plants outside the church, followed by my footsteps as I descend the large staircase down to the main street in town, built over a small river which runs out to the see.  Walking down this main drag is mostly silent aside from a fountain dripping, the sounds of the river, and some music coming from the local caffes, until finally arrived at the sea.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Carnevale in Maiori (without parade), 24 February 2019

A binaural recording, headphone listening recommended.

The Circumvesuviana is a railway which connects the extra-urban suburbs to the east of Napoli to the city.  Most of these locations are literally in the shadow of the infamous Vesuvius, or the Vesuvio, a grand volcano which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum nearly 2,000 years ago.  Both of those cities are currently served by the Circumvesuviana.  In 2007 I took my father to visit Italy for the first time.  Napoli was the city of his father's family, and his grandfather was born in Castellammare di Stabia, one of the suburbs on the Circumvesuviana. When my dad first saw the trains he wasn't impressed.  There is literally graffiti on every bit of the exterior, and he felt transported back to 1970s NYC (not in a good way, either). 

This recording was made on the Circumvesuviana one afternoon as we made our way to Sorrento, where we took the bus to the Amalfi coast (see earlier installments in Minori and Maiori). I think this recording was made somewhere around Torre Annunziata but I can't really recall.  You can hear the train moving through several stops, with a what I think are Romani musicians performing in the background at the far end of the car. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly, informal presentation of unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Around Vesuvius, 22 February 2019

This recording was made in Maiori, on the Amalfi Coast, as was a previous installment.  This recording is actually a montage of three separate recordings made on my phone while walking into the town from Minori: some ambient clatter, the sound of children hitting a metal rack with sticks, and church bells.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings

[Useless Sounds] - Maiori montage, 24 February 2019

This recording was made inside San Francesco di Paola, a minor basilica in Napoli's Piazza del Plebiscito, the city's main square.  I visited Napoli, the city of my grandfather's family, for the first time in 2004 and have been through this piazza many times.  But for whatever reason, I never bothered to enter the church here until spring 2019.  The piazza was, for some reason, used as a parking lot from 1963 until the mid 1990s. The basilica itself was built by Joachim Murat(Napoleon's brother-in-law), who was briefly King of Naples from 1808 to 1815, during which he engaged in extensive civic construction. The basilica is reminiscent of Rome's ancient Pantheon, it's dome contributing to its notable acoustics.

This is the second recording I'm uploading today, since the Maiori montage is so short. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings

[Useless Sounds] - Singing inside San Francesco di Paola

A broken speaker, I'm assuming, produced this very endearingly odd rhythm. Recorded on the Napoli metro linea 1 on my phone. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] -  A broken speaker on the Napoli Metro

Another short straightforward recording made on my phone while heading to the grocery store. I was living by metro Salvator Rosa but would sometimes walk up to the Vomero neighborhood to shop, since the big grocery store there was open late.  Here I'm walking up Via Bernini towards Piazza Vanvitelli, there's some automobile traffic and someone is playing the saxophone across the street.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Street Sax In Vomero

This is a binaural recording made within the Amalfi Cathedral in Piazza del Duomo in Amalfi,  aka il Duomo di Amalfi, Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea. As I was walking around on Saturday evening, the organist was practicing casually. Equally prominent is the sound of the wooden pew creaking, and worshipers mulling about. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Church Organ Practice at Cattedrale di Sant'Andrea, Amalfi, 23 February 2019

This recording is of me standing outside the Mercato Testaccio, which is closed on Sunday, noticing the nice sound of this loose, broken stone on the sidewalk.

I came up to Rome from Napoli on 3 and 4 of March 2019, just for one night.  The morning of the 3rd I saw Alvin Curran perform at the closing of his sound installation at the Terme di Caracalla. That night, I saw Mai Mai Mai and Sun Araw at La Fine. I spent much of the following day interviewing Curran.  I'm looking forward to sharing that eventually. 

But even though this little visit up to Rome was brief and eventful, I still managed to spend a lot of time just sitting around. One thing tourists do wrong is rush around in Rome trying to do too much.  Rome can really be a shitshow, especially in the historic center, and the real beauty of the city comes from being unrushed, doing nothing. 'Il bel far niente' as they say. 

For this one night, I stayed in the Testaccio neighborhood, which is a small working-class enclave that has retained a pretty particular identity.  It's not too far from the center but feels far removed.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds]  - Loose stone on the pavement outside Mercato Testaccio, Rome

Just sitting around in the park, wasting time. If the previous installment was about noticing the little pleasurable sounds of everyday life (a stone moving, in that case) this recording is about just the calm background din, not quite silence but not very eventful. But again, 'Il bel far niente.' Birds singing, a siren in the distance, acorns and leaves rustling occasionally.

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Almost Nothing at Colle Oppio, Rome

I took an unplanned break the last two Fridays, as I've been traveling more than usual, but now we're back with two more short soundscapes mean to be juxtaposed to one another. 

The first is the sound of descending the scala ponte di Chiaia, or the Chiaia Bridge Stairs.  Via Chiaia is a nice street full of luxury shops in Napoli, connecting the piazza Trieste e Trento, and nearby piazza del Plebiscito and via Toledo (subject of an earlier installment) with piazza dei Martiri. Chiaia is one of the more affluent neighborhoods in Napoli, on the seafront below the Vomero district. The area just north of piazza Triese e Treno and west of via Toledo is the infamous Quartiere Spagnoli. Both neighborhoods were built during the time of Spanish rule in Napoli, in the 16th and 17th centuries (the same Spanish colonizers that Masaniello's rebellion was directed against, another previous installment). 

A prominent landmark on via Chiaia is the Chiaia bridge on via Giovanni Nicotera. This recording begins in front of the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli a Pizzofalcone, bells ringing, and then a descent down the Scala Ponte di Chiaia to via Chiaia. These stairs are covered, with lots of graffiti inside, although there is also the more recent addition of an elevator. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Scala Ponte di Chiaia, Napoli

This is a binaural recording. Headphone listening recommend. 

Another descent down a set of stairs, this time the famous Scotsman Steps in Edinburgh, Scotland. Attached to the Scotsman Hotel, these steps link connect the North Bridge to Waverly Station. Like Napoli, Edinburgh is a (geographically) multi-layered city with a rich history, and remains the capital of Scotland. Since there are many peaks and troughs throughout the city, such steps are often necessary to traverse the city. 

The steps opened in 1899, when what is now the Scotsman Hostel once hosted the offices of the Scotsman newspaper. The Steps were built for the public good, but after nearly a century they had fallen into disrepair and became a site for vandalism and "anti-social behavior" (not unlike the Chiaia Bridge Stairs of the previous installment). Unlike in Napoli, however, the stairs were renovated in 2011 as part of an art project by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed. 

Each step consists of a different slab of marble, different colors and from different quarries around the world, from Italy to India. This looks lovely, of course, but also contributes to an interesting acoustical phenomenon documented here in a binaural recording. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - The Scotsman Steps, Edinburgh

While visiting Matteo Uggeri in Milano last month, I accompanied him to  practice and dinner at the home of his bandmate north west outside the city. The weather forecast had been promising rain, but although it always seemed on the verge of a downpour, the rain never came. While driving on the highway, the storm finally broke, before transforming into a brief and intense hail storm. These were some large 'grandine', or better 'grandone'. Smaller than golf balls but large enough we nearly had to pull over. 

Useless Sounds is a weekly series by Joseph Sannicandro, sharing short, unprocessed field-recordings.

[Useless Sounds] - Hail Outside of Milano, 22 May 2019

Since 2012, A Closer Listen has claimed a specialized niche in the music industry: instrumental album reviews!  By concentrating on this above all else (singles, videos, concerts, interviews, lyric albums, announcements), we’ve built a healthy fanbase and a strong reputation.

If music is recorded and nobody listens, does it still make a sound?

[Useless Sounds]

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