User:Thijshijsijsjss/Notes on SI22/Liquid memories

Thijs's field recording: a liquid memory

This page is created as part of Special Issue 22, for which XPUB1 collaborates with WORM Radio. At 2023 - 09 - 18, Michael proposed an exercise using Radio Aporee: finding a field recording that triggered a memory and uploading it together with a readout of the recording's metadata and the associated memory. This page contains and logs my (Thijs's) work this exercise.

Field recording

This recording is taken from Radio Aporee and can be found here

Meta data

Location title: Kanaleneiland, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Location: hydro + brug
Uploader: Justin Bennett
Timestamp: 02.04.2014 11:11 
Timezone: Europe/Amsterdam 
Duration: 1:07min.
License: PUBLIC-DOMAIN
User submitted description: hydrophones + stereo mic

Associated Memory

I've been living in Utrecht for one year now. I moved in at the same time as one of my roommates. We had only met once before, but after the move we spend the whole night talking, which resulted in this weirdly amazing dynamic where we kinda knew eachother on a deeper personal level already, but didn't know any of each other's surface level characteristics. 

The next morning, we went on our first Utrecht-grocery-shopping-adventure together (a COOP mini). When returning home (I was putting in the key to the door) my roommate's mouth dropped open and they said (paraphrasing): 'oh my god, I'm living in Utrecht.'

I've thought about this reaction quite often -- I have never had a moment of sudden realisation like this. At times, I've been quite jealous of it. It has also made me insecure. For me, complex webs of emotions maybe don't exists in a singular moment, but rather over a period of time.

This summer, I was out of the Netherlands for 4 weeks. While my trip was beautiful, I really didn't feel at ease. I found myself missing Utrecht -- a feeling I had not experienced this way before in my life. I realized: this might be it, this might be _my_ 'oh my god'-moment.

Back in Utrecht, I spend most remaining summer days by the waterside listening to LONG SEASON by the Fishmans. 
This recording of the water in Utrecht nicely combines both the scenery of these summer days, as well as the experimental use of water in the album that soundtracked this experience for me. 

The funny thing is, apparantly, now the sound of a drop of water is enough to trigger my 'oh my god' feelings.