Telephone

"I distinctly remember using an old dial phone as a child. Its solid ergonomics. The grime that would stick in the recesses of the mouth piece. Unscrewing the mic and speaker caps. Learning how to call numbers without using the dial by tapping patterns on the switch hook. The cold draughty corridors and call boxes where I'd phone friends. Number number numbers. 

"The old clicking dial phones signalled numbers by rhythmically interrupting the line. For this piece I used the recording as the only source material. All sounds in my piece are directly derived from that recording using techniques inspired by the chopping way the dial works. Both the audio process and overall compositional structure using this abrupt interrupting technique at macro and micro scales. Without the use of equalisation or artificial reverb I wanted to see what senses of space lie within the raw sound and its particles. Are there still remnants of the heady conversations of youth and those draughty cold hallways?"

Composition by Alan M. Jackson. 

This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds