South Asia PhoNographic Mornings #5 - Morning Vendors in Delhi

Stéphane Marin presents a weekly series of fifteen short soundscapes recorded in the mornings at various locations throughout South Asia part of 'Each Morning of the World', which invites sound artists, composers and recordists globally to share their own specific point of listening, either through a raw field recording or original composition. A weekly series of twenty soundscapes recorded in the mornings at various locations throughout South Asia, presented Stéphane Marin. This episode: Hildegard Westerkamp.

It’s October 31, 1992, about 6 am. It is still dark when a group of us arrives at the early morning vegetable market in Tilak Nagar, New Delhi. Participants of the Soundscape Workshop that I was conducting at Max Mueller Bhavan, had suggested that we visit this market. As we arrive in a taxi, the sounds of scooters, auto rickshaws, bicycles and a multitude of male voices welcome us. We walk towards the market and hear an increase in voice density. It is hard to make good recordings because people keep bumping into my microphone, which also provokes more raucousness in some of the voices! We spend quite a bit of time here, listening, recording, making sound level measurements, and afterwards discussing the experience over masala chai. Music playing over loudspeakers accompanies us back to our taxi, the door closes, momentary quiet.

Vegetables are sold at Tilak Nagar and eventually end up in the hands of the vendors who sell them in a neighbourhood such as Janakpuri a few hours later. One of our workshop participants lives here and from his balcony we not only have a panoramic view but also get a clear sonic impression of the neighbourhood. The soundscape is relatively quiet and spacious, especially in comparison to the dense market soundscape. We can hear children playing, the inevitable scooters passing, birds singing, dogs barking, all manner of human activity and the trumpet sound of the toy vendor. Our ears can trace the voices of the many morning vendors as they move through a labyrinth of streets. At the end of the piece a more recent, powerful vendor voice joins in, recorded with my iPhone as I was walking through Delhi’s Hauz Khas neighbourhood one morning in November of 2018. I had returned to India for the first time in 20 years. There have been many changes in India during this time, but vendors’ voices are still a daily presence in the Delhi soundscape.

Hildegard Westerkamp, May 2019
www.hildegardwesterkamp.ca
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