In Search of Silence

The city never turns off. There is always the continual whirr of what I guess are extractor fans. Their flat-line broadband noise is almost indiscernible during the day what with the traffic noise and general hubbub of city life; however, at night and especially early morning, they can be easily heard acting as a sort of acoustic blanket covering up the detail of the quietest sounds.

For rest from this continual noise one has to escape to the lanes as even the 'natural' world offered by the parks suffers from our modern day infatuation with noise producing technology: mainly traffic or the hum from buildings close by. In the lanes, the best bet is to find a courtyard, however whilst they might be free from air-conditioning humming, these places, of course, are not silent - they have their own sound worlds….