Sound artist Mark Vernon is keeping a sound diary during his residency at Sura Medura. During his stay he will be travelling around Sri Lanka, collecting sights and sounds for a composed soundscape work. The sounds Mark has collected so far can be heard as set on Mark’s Soundcloud page and form an audio record of Mark’s first couple of weeks exploring Sura Medura, Hikkaduwa and the surrounding area.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119718225″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
The crossing is manned 24 hours a day by a man in a small hut decorated with painted panels. The times that trains are due to pass through are written on a small chalkboard. At the side of the hut, near the canal, they have created a small garden which they tend to keep themselves occupied between trains.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119720478″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
As part of the preperations for making the traditional meal of rice with curry for lunch Dulani uses a coconut scraper to scrape out the coconut flesh. The device is clamped to the table and holds the half coconut in place whilst a blade, turned by a handle scrapes round the insides.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119721658″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Frogs at night following a monsoon. Recorded in the garden at Sura Medura. The frog and insect chorus is a nightly occurrence, particularly after heavy rain.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119734444″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
At the fishery harbour in Hikkaduwa moored fishing boats push against the rubber tyres that line the harbour walls making a loud creaking sound.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119722982″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Lal S.K. Upul invited me onto his boat and showed me the cramped crews quarters in which they live together for up to a month at sea. He also demonstrated the ships radio set for me. Recorded at Hikkaduwa fishery harbour.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119737873″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Fishing boat engine being revved up and restarted with lots of sputtering and clouds of thick blue petrol fumes.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119738673″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Motorbikes, trucks and tuktuks wait impatiently for the barrier to lift at the busy intersection of Baddegama road. When the alarm bell stops and the barriers rise there is a sudden surge of crisscrossing traffic mixed with train passengers leaving the platform of nearby Hikkaduwa train station.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119734875″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
The typewriter clatters away as the typists at the Notary’s office hand type copies of documents, working their way through seemingly endless reams of paper. The hustle and bustle of traffic and car horns in the town centre can be heard quite clearly in the background.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119739576″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
At the busy Hikkaduwa bus station a conductor hanging off an idling bus calls out to passengers that the Galle bus is about to leave, “Galle, Galle, Galle…”. At the same time a mobile lottery ticket salesman on a motorbike is attracting customers with a megaphone attached to his bike.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/119740052″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
When chatting to a local tuktuk driver about my interest in local sound marks he pointed me in the direction of the bank. Here, each evening from around 6pm noisy Myna birds flock to the trees either side of Galle Road. Their activity rises and falls in crescendoes, seemingly in relation to the traffic noise.