We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Concrete Paris

by Iain Chambers

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Contains "Concrete Paris - Speech Version" - only available on this cassette - and "Concrete Paris - Buildings Version"

    Includes unlimited streaming of Concrete Paris via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      £8 GBP or more 

     

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

about

“I’ve been making recordings of the sounds of Parisian architecture. Specifically those buildings in concrete often labelled brutalist – a term many architects dislike.

Some of these early recordings found their way into Langham Research Centre’s Tape Works (Vol. 2) album. Now for this new composition I’ve brought them together with new lockdown recordings from beyond Paris’s Péripherique – the dual carriageway that contains the historic city.

These new town centres were built in the 60s and 70s. The communist suburbs – les banlieues rouges – made social housing their first priority and commissioned daring new buildings, like Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie’s work at Ivry-sur-Seine.

As a non-sequential guide I used the Brutalist Map of Paris, published by Blue Crow Media in 2017. Some of these buildings look utopian to me, suggesting different ways we could make spaces for our communities. They also suggest different textures and acoustics, and immediately got me thinking about describing the spaces through music and sound design.

“Concrete Paris” is also a radiophonic feature commissioned by BBC Radio 3, featuring some of the architects of the buildings alongside the people who live there. This new speechless version features just the sounds of the buildings themselves.”

Iain Chambers, February 2021

credits

released February 28, 2021

Recordings by Dinah Bird and Iain Chambers

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Iain Chambers London, UK

Iain Chambers is a composer and producer whose music often deploys field recordings as musical material.

In 2019 Iain launched the record label Persistence of Sound, presenting new musique concrète and field recordings.

Iain is a founder member of Langham Research Centre, an electronic music ensemble using obsolete technology.
... more

contact / help

Contact Iain Chambers

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Iain Chambers, you may also like: