Wings of Desire (Special Edition)
You Are Listening to San Francisco is a mash-up of ambient music and the dispatch center of the San Francisco Bay Area Highway Patrol. Versions are also available for Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Montreal.
Either stream alone is not all that interesting but I find the combination compelling.
HiLowBrow mentions a favorite film of mine in talking about You Are Listening:
It reminds me of the thought-voices in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, of the constant stream of individual meanings heard by sad angels in overcoats, normalized out of sheer quantity, yet somehow retaining their individualism: because they are heard. This tone, this sonic landscape, is what the LA-based remake, City of Angels, sadly missed.
From a gentleforce interview of Eric Eberhardt:
GF: Ok firstly, your name, where you live and what are you up to at the moment?
Eric: Eric Eberhardt / San Francisco / Digital Product Manager for a entertainment & publishing company
...
GF: There seems to be a lot of unknown/underground artists streaming on the site. How did you go about finding/sourcing music for the site and how many artists are now streaming through it?
Eric: I originally got inspired by the SomaFM ambient streams as mentioned in the above link but since I didn’t want to just “hijack” their stream & bandwidth I started looking for other alternatives. A friend suggested SoundCloud which I had used a little bit before but was amazed to find out just how much great ambient music was available on the site with a “remix-friendly” Creative Commons license. Initially all the music came from searching the SoundCloud “ambient” tag and then hand-selecting tracks that I thought would work well and since launch I’ve been contacted by many artists who have enjoyed the project and asked to be included. If the music seems like it will work I’ve been adding everyone who asks!
I first heard about this on MeFi Projects.
I have subscribed for awhile to firedispatch.com which sends me an email for any fire department dispatch event in San Mateo County. But it never occurred to me to augment civic awareness with aesthetics.
Uh oh, some problem was just reported "south of The Cats" on Highway 17. Awaiting further report...
Comments