When trying to work out what we wanted to create, I kept being drawn to the concept of a city park scape, and Lita was interested in the bodega as a regular part of New York City life. We were having trouble finding what felt like a full story in one concept or the other, but decided together they could create an interesting story. Thus, our sound walk idea was fully formulated.

We start with the sounds of someone leaving their home and locking their door, walking down the block to their local bodega to order food, and then to a park nearby to enjoy their meal. We collected sounds from a few different locations, so we took extra caution to make sure we could blend them all into a story that felt connected.

The sound bites I collected:

• Leaves being stepped on and kicked around
• Wind howling through the park
• Water being swept off tennis courts
• Insects chirping
• Human chatter
• Car backing up with a loud beep

The sound bites Lita collected:

• The bodega door chimes
• Ordering and paying for food
• Cooking sounds
• Food wrapper/foil noises
• Eating food outside

We used Ableton to put our sound walk together since Lita uses it professionally and I have used it before in the past out of personal curiosity. Before putting our sound in Ableton though, we mapped out the journey on paper, which I’ve posted below.

Listen to our Sound Walk here:

Zoe+Lita Sound Walk.mp3