Soundtrack of our rides

TRAIN TRACKS Seth Vanek, left, and Justin Petertil capture audio for the CTA Sound Project.

Some people, this writer included, put fingers to their ears when a rumbling train begins its approach. Justin Petertil puts out a microphone.

“The background noise of everyday life is pretty rich,” says Petertil, a member of the pop-rock band Roommate and an auxiliary member of popular locals Office. After noticing enough El riders listening to their iPods, Petertil wondered if people might be more inclined to listen to the elaborate cacophony the trains produce if they could hear it directly through their own earplugs.

Using only a vintage Radio Shack synthesizer, some odd percussion (a rolling office chair, jangling keys) and the postprocessing possibilities of Pro Tools, Petertil and collaborator Seth Vanek re-created field recordings of various El sounds and dubbed it the CTA Sound Project. Thanks to grant money, fabrications of everything from turnstiles turning to both subway and elevated trains approaching are available as free MP3s. The goal, Petertil explains, is to listen to your own personal playlist of CTA noise during your next CTA trip, creating a kind of “sensory confusion.” Inspired by the jarring sight of the Eiffel Tower replica in Las Vegas, Petertil wants his audience to hear—through those same iPods—“a fake version of the sounds you’re hearing, rather than the sounds themselves,” he says.

The CTA Sound Project is just one of a handful of bold new local projects taking advantage of cheap technology to explore the musique concrète, or found sounds, of the city. Favorite Chicago Sounds, on its way to becoming a definitive catalog, eagerly seeks out the public’s participation. Conceived in London in 1998 and now in multiple cities around the world, the Chicago edition of Favorite Sounds operates with the help of Chicago Public Radio and Experimental Sound Studios.

It’s easy to see why it’s traveled well. The premise is simple: First, someone logs on to Favorite Chicago Sounds’ website and submits a short written description of his own favorite Chicago sound, e.g., the real entry “The voices of the Chicagoans debating the merits of the George Halas/NFC Trophy on display at City Hall [sic].” After seeing the entry, one member of the volunteer staff (or a member of the public) goes out and records that aural moment, and then uploads it. When paired up, you have a wondrous archive of city history, ideas and styles—all through sound. “It’s really about learning to listen to the world around you,” explains Jesse Seay, an advisory artist for FCS and a founder of the Chicago movement. In addition to constantly seeking new volunteers—the public is encouraged to contribute—Seay just began work on the first tactile interface for FCS, devised of a wall of old-school tin cans hooked up to computers, slated to open this fall at the Chicago Children’s Museum.

Traditional record labels are finding ways to explore musique concrète, too. Chicago Sound Series, a new online project from the local label Contraphonic, has two sections: “A Lot You Got to Holler,” a repository of found audio narratives and abstractions, and “Little Hell,” which houses for-sale packages of MP3s and PDFs that focus on a historical event or place in Chicago. Holler’s content, available for free download, includes pieces like “Sound Is Well Reflected,” a winding journey that takes the listener from the bustling footsteps in Macy’s during the holidays to a serene basilica on the North Side, all without a narrator. Little Hell’s debut release, tentatively set for March, will feature a musical meditation on the history of Goose Island, an area that used to be known as Little Hell, composed by prolific jazz drummer Frank Rosaly.

The common thread running through each project is helping people rediscover the city. “Even with gentrification,” Contraphonic co-owner Ben Schulman says, “the small towns and neighborhood identities that make up Chicago are, for the most part, still pretty much intact. Hopefully, this helps people get out into the city and explore.” For Seay, how one does that exploring is also important. “We’ve become such a media-saturated, MTV-style, fast-editing society where everything is served right up in your face. And it’s taken away the experience of patiently waiting for the sensation of sound,” Seay says. With musique concrète, “you’re putting yourself out in nature and learning to listen, instead of having a hyperkinetic editor put together the sound for you.”

Create your own sounds, playlists and experiences at favoritechicagosounds.com, ctasoundproject.com and contraphonic.com/con/ccss.php.