Growing up in a city, of which the river is an inseparable part, it is hard to imagine functioning in a place where there is no such river – no banks, bridges, or the presence of aquatic birds… The Vistula used to have great importance in terms of communication, trade, human life – however, there are no preserved significant audio records of this. Today, on the Vistula, we listen mainly to silence, the sound of water, the voices of birds and car traffic drones present in many places. We meet fishermen and canoeists every now and then. There are only a few operational cruise ships.

The sound map of the Vistula in the Mazovia region documents how the Vistula itself and the places located by the river sound today. It is a subjective documentation and such is the image that emerges from it. It can be a starting point for your own sound tours of the Vistula, and this form of specific “tourism”, requiring concentration, drastic limitation of our impact on the surrounding environment, as if in opposition to the omnipresent culture of the selfie, can give a lot of satisfaction, even if we do not use a microphone and we make no recordings.

Today, the Vistula River indeed sings with noise, but not only the noise generated by flowing water. It is impossible to escape the sounds of land and air traffic. These, although part of the current Vistula soundscape, are happening somewhat apart of the river itself – they are not the result of human interest in the Vistula, or the direct use of its resources. A motorboat, ferry or cruise boat that passes from time to time (the presence of the latter can still be noticed in Warsaw, Wyszogród and Płock) is only an audial shadow of the times when the Vistula was used quite commonly. The soundscape of those years can, however, be at best a field for the imagination and the memory of the non-existent. The Vistula A.D. 2021 recordings, being the content of this project, will remain. When and how will they be used? The possibilities, as always in the case of field recordings, come in various forms.

The first sound map of the Vistula in the Mazovia region, created as part of the project “Singing with noise”, there will be ca. 160 minutes of recordings made in 40 locations on the Mazovian section of the river. The map will be published as a double CD, which will be available free of charge in December 2021 in selected places in Mazovia.

The project “Singing with noise. The sound map of the Vistula in the Mazovia region” is implemented by the Nobiscum Foundation thanks to funding from the Self-Government of the Mazovian Voivodeship.

Field recordings: Piotr Dąbrowski

Photo and video documentation: Gabriela Nowak-Dąbrowska

Below you can find a video (oh, the irony!) trailer of the project. The Vistula soundscape recordings will be here soon!

After many years of listening to the city I live in, it’s time for the first sound map of Płock. It will be released by the Nobiscum Foundation on a double CD thanks to the funding of the City of Płock. Below you will find detailed information, and I am already working on the next year’s continuation of the project!

I would like to thank my wife Gabi for her support during the creation of the map as well as her photos documenting the whole process!

We hear, but do we listen? A modern city, not necessarily the size of a metropolis, is constantly flooding us with the amalgam of sounds of natural origin and those being an effect of human activity. Living in such an environment, we automatically filter these sounds, defending ourselves against over-stimulation and trying to maintain the necessary focus. Moreover, the main sense on which we base our cognitive activities is sight. What if this tendency was reversed for a moment – what if we closed our eyes and focused on what is reaching our ears?

The sound map has multiple purposes: documentary, historical and cultural. It is a record of variables – a good example can be the current epidemic situation, which in the case of Płock, but not only, cut out a large part of the characteristic social life buzz from the city’s tissue. However, closed restaurants and the lack of cultural events in the city space did not result in silence. The space was dominated by noise. The streets invariably attack our ears with the sounds of car traffic, which, depending on the place, takes place either continuously or in characteristic waves. Steel and electricity disregard the epidemic, so the machine is becoming a bolder element in the soundscape of the city. Still, there are places close to the character of a galenosphere, where nature benefits from the reduced presence of the human intruder.

The first sound map of Płock includes slightly less than 160 minutes of recordings made in 40 locations in the city. The map will be published by the Nobiscum Foundation in the form of a double CD with an eco-friendly cover, which will be released thanks to funding received from the City of Płock.

The author of all recordings is Piotr Dąbrowski, a musician and sound artist from Płock who has been following the sounds in our city environment for many years.

The map will be used by the Nobiscum Foundation to carry out further tasks in the field of soundscape research as well as educational activities in 2021. We plan to continue the project, which in the coming years will be enriched with even more recordings – a sound map is a living and changing concept, just like the recorded city lives and changes on a constant basis.

Recordings of the Płock sound map will be published under the Creative Commons attribution license – (CC BY 3.0 PL). We encourage you to use them in educational and cultural activities, as well as contact us for additional information.

An edition of 500 of the sound map of Płock will be available free of charge in the second half of December 2020. More info soon!

The sound map of Płock.
Cover photo: Gabriela Nowak-Dąbrowska. Design: Piotr Dąbrowski