The Soundtrack of our Lives

I have realised that in documenting the sound of my environment over the last few months that I have largely ignored my own sonic impact on the world. I have noticed recently though that particularly on work days I have my own soundtrack, and I think that however spontaneous we consider our lives to be, we probably all have at least a small period of repetition within our days in which we create a sequence of similar sounds from day to day.

Mine begins in the morning with the same jittery high pitched alarm gradually increasing in volume, intensity and closeness, followed by the gentle creek of the bed as i stretch to turn it off and a little bang as i place my phone back on the table. My bare feet then make a soft padding sound as i cross the wooden floor, less rhythmic than my normal walking pattern, before the soft wispy scraping of the bottom of the wooden door drags back and forth, ending in the click and clunk of the door shutting again.

Into the reverberant tiled bathroom and there is the startling shudder of the shower door vibrating fiercely as it is pulled open, the thudding clunk of the steel tap pulled on and then the rushing pixelated fall of streaming water, battering off of the hard plastic tray, hissing, dripping and bouncing, a whole array of frequencies building a wall of sound. The shower door shudders again upon exit, and soft drips patter onto the floor.

In the kitchen the kettle boils with rumbling intensity, a cereal packet rustles as my breakfast plinks into the bowl and juice pours softly and fluidly into my glass. The kettle hisses and stutters as it boils whilst a metallic spoon chinks and chimes against my china bowl. Coffee soars into my flask enveloping its way upward and the lid bumps and screws into place before sharply clipping in dead mid range.

Back to the bathroom and the brushing of teeth like scratching vinyl meets glugging water flowing softly from the tap, hard soled shoes bang abruptly against solid wood and brittle, cold sounding tiles. A zip scrapes gently as my bag shuts, wavering in pitch and meeting the sound of man made fabric brushing metalically. Finally my keys jangle brightly and reverberantly before the hard clunk of the lock turning over, the solid bump of the door closing behind me and a couple more clunks as it locks.

There will be more of my daily soundtracks to come, but if anyone wants to leave a comment documenting any of theirs it would be really interesting to read.