East Washington Street at Night

8/14/2012 | Chicago, IL

Looking west from Millennium Park down East Washington Street, the street lights and automobile headlights blur shortly after Michigan Avenue. We walked west slowly into the light recording the street sounds from about Michigan Avenue to State Street. The time was late evening and the street traffic was fairly heavy, giving us an interesting assortment of footsteps, passing conversation, laughter and street noise. At about a minute and a half, the music quiets down to reveal creepy distant laughter, a couple police car barks, a woman’s voice speaking “Spur of the moment, like…” and “all these horrible things…”. Following this, the music changes for a bus lumbering by. About three minutes into the recording, we passed under the elevated tracks at Wabash Avenue just as a train was passing overhead. The sound of the elevated train cars nearly drowns out the music and as the train departs, the music dissolves slowly. At the four minute mark, a snap and woman’s laughter shift the tone of the music. The sound of street traffic picks up as we approach State Street.