Sound of the Tramontana wind on top of Canigou Mountain at the beginning of Autumn. I caught the sound of the wind in between big stones. You can ear small birds at the beginning of the recording and a flag flapping in the wind 2:40 while people are talking at the back.

Recorded with an XY Audio-technica BP4025 microphone.
Recorded on a Sound Devices MixPre-3.

Tramontane Sur Les Cailloux Au Sommet Du Canigou

What looks like a simple clothing shop from the outside is in fact a beauty parlour and hair salon, second-hand clothes shop, and a tailoring and dressmaking workshop that is run by a Palestinian-Bangladeshi couple who met in the Al-Hassan factories seven years ago.

Clothing and beauty salon

Fish is very important in Bangladeshi cuisine, and while imported frozen salt water fish is the preferred choice, it is very expensive. Some workers thus buy cheaper sweet water carp, sold by young Jordanian boys from Al-Ramtha in the Friday market.

Fish vendors

Most migrant workers only eat meat or chicken once a week, on their Friday holiday. Poultry is the cheapest option and to assure the meat is fresh, most workers buy from Jordanian vendors who slaughter the chicken or pigeons right in front of them.

Poultry traders

Behind a giant block of dormitories accommodating over ten thousand female workers, a row of shops forms a dense market street. Especially on Fridays, Jordanian street vendors trade fresh food alongside Bangladeshi female vendors offering Asian vegetables. Informal taxis and busses compete for space with pedestrians and bikes in the dusty street.

Phase 2 market

Several unofficial entry ways allow workers to climb over the industrial zone’s back wall, thus entering or leaving unobserved by the private security firms that man the official entry gates. Rocky foot paths, dark at night and ill-reputed for robberies and sexual harassment, lead down a hill and towards the Phase II market.

Crossing the wall

After the monthly pay day, crowds of workers hurry to the numerous money transfer and exchange offices, mostly to send a substantial part of their salary back home. The exchange rate and commission charges determine when and from where workers send money, and informal money lenders often gather in front of the transfer offices, exploiting situations of financial distress with high interest rates.

Money transfer office

Most dormitories are gender segregated and workers of the same nationality share rooms and building floors. Private security firms patrol entry and exit and enforce a strict curfew. Living in dormitory rooms shared by 6-10 workers means a constant lack of privacy and oxygen, and workers often spend hours queuing to take turns in the overcrowded kitchens and bathrooms.

The dormitory

Escaping the crowds and noise is the biggest desire of many workers after endless work shifts with little oxygen, noisy machines and artificial white light. At the back end of the industrial zone, a row of warehouses offers unobstructed views of the night sky and silence, despite the constant hum of factory ventilation systems. Many workers come here to speak in privacy on the phone with their friends and relatives back home, go for walks, or meet their friends and lovers.

Connected lives

A block of dorms for over 3500 male workers to the South of the industrial zone is surrounded by a lively commercial street with restaurants, barbers and alcohol shops. The private security guards denounce any female worker approaching the hostels, turning it into a male-only area. The gym is the only space to let off steam, exposing working bodies to another type of machines.

Rubina

This community centre for migrant workers opened in 2014 with support from the International Labour Organisation. Besides sports and educational activities, the canteen is used for shared meals and celebrations, and workers receive legal and personal support. However, the Centre has been closed due to the 2025 US funding cuts, and workers have lost their only space for leisure and socialising in the industrial zone.

Workers center

David Lagarde is an independent geo-cartographer creating maps and sound pieces for researchers and artists with the aim of accounting for the specificities of the territories they engage with as part of their work.

David Lagarde

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