Only a New Yorker could love the screech.
That metal-on-metal clamor of a 42-ton machine stopping its stride inches from your face, with a whoosh of air and a rattling of tracks. Now, the sound of a subway pulling into a station seems nothing short of comforting.
At least, that’s how it feels when it’s heard on the first track of “Missing Sounds of New York,” a new album released by the New York Public Library that charts the sonic pulse of the city, encompassing a ballgame, a taxi ride and a visit to the library itself. The everyday soundtrack that has been muffled since the city went on lockdown in March in response to the coronavirus — the horns and jackhammers, late-night parties and crowded spaces that once enervated New Yorkers at every turn — has become a source of deep nostalgia and solace already.
Romancing Rush Hour
The New York Public Library / Mother New York“When I first heard it, it almost brought me to tears,” said Carrie Welch, chief external relations officer at the library. “It’s so emotional and so poignant, and what you forget, after seven weeks, is the cacophony of noise that is so pleasurable, and all the different types of sounds that make New York, New York.”
Made in collaboration with the digital agency Mother New York, the album is resonating, with around 200,000 streams since it dropped Friday on Spotify and SoundCloud via the library’s website. “It was one of the things we could do to support New Yorkers, this shared narrative, if you will, that would bring us together while we’re all apart,” Welch said. On Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo made the album his “Deep Breath Moment” in his daily email.
The idea was born last month, in a Zoom meeting between the library and Mother — also responsible for the library’s 2018 Insta Novels project, which translated classic literature into Instagram stories. They had been discussing ways to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the NYPL this year, but found themselves instead talking about what they missed about city life. The clop of carriage horses and the wail of a soloing jazz saxophonist; the streetside gossip overlaid with the blaring car stereo; the raucous, expectant buzz of a bar. Even “It’s Showtime!”
To See an Underground Show (feat. Kid the Wiz)
The New York Public Library / Mother New YorkThat line comes courtesy of the dancer Kid the Wiz, who sent in a recording of one of his subway performances. “He was literally like, ‘anything to support New York,’” said Kim Chavez, the producer of the album at Mother. Chavez, a native New Yorker, called it a dream project. “I spent probably half my life in the New York Public Library, growing up in the Bronx, going through the New York public school system,” she said.
But how to capture the beat of a now-quieter city? Chavez used some archival audio, and some from a sound library that Mother maintains. Then she got creative, conjuring up snippets from memory and summoning others to do the same, and send in clips. About 100 people worked on the album, she said, producing it in just three weeks.
The recreated sounds are authentic in their own way. The airport cabby who mutters, “People crazy today, huh?” after the brouhaha of traffic is actually Chavez’s husband (who is not actually a cabby). “We recorded it in the closet that I turned into a sound booth/office,” she said. “The guys screaming at him were friends of mine from the Bronx.”
“There are zero fake New York accents on this album,” she added. “I don’t think I could sleep at night.”
What there is instead, is a polyglot soundscape — Spanish, Mandarin, Polish, Armenian, Konglish (Korean English) — sometimes with music to match. “It was really important to us that there should be a track on this album for every kind of New Yorker, especially at this time,” Chavez said.
Some sounds are conspicuously absent: sirens, deemed too triggering in the pandemic. But, Chavez said, “There was a lot of back and forth, should we include the sounds of clapping at 7 p.m.?” They decided against it. “This is meant to be an audio time capsule from before this,” she said.
Never Call It a Night Again
The New York Public Library / Mother New YorkThe nightlife track, “Never Call It a Night Again,” which starts with a stern but blasé doorman intoning, “IDs please,” was assiduously crafted. “We spent a lot of time perfecting a specific type of door slam,” said Erik Norin, the creative director of the project at Mother. “It had to be just right for the listener to really feel the weight of that heavy metal door that’s always propped open in bars, and sort of slams behind you when you walk in.” Then came the background chatter: “We had so many people send us petty conversations and roommate drama,” Chavez said. (The door guy is voiced by the sound designer, Michael Coffman.)
Mister Softee was a dream too hard to realize; they couldn’t get the rights to the jingle in time. But the concessions at a ballgame were plum pickings. “I had like six different people sending me that, screaming ‘Beer here!’ in their houses,” Chavez said.
Out in Left Field
The New York Public Library / Mother New YorkSome tracks are intimate — footsteps close enough that I looked over my shoulder — or tell a story. The last one follows a visitor through the main branch of the library, with a tour guide declaiming “the library lions, Patience and Fortitude,” that stand guard outside, and a delighted toddler story hour. “We wanted to show that the library is vibrant and dynamic and not your grandmother’s library, with the squeaky-shoed woman whispering shush,” said Welch.
The Not-Quite-Quiet Library
The New York Public Library / Mother New YorkBut other numbers are more ambient, a microphone inserted into a moment rather than traveling through a scene. “The idea was for it to be a bit nondescript in some places, because we wanted people to be able to picture their own joint, their own memory about something,” Chavez said.
For the album’s creators, working on it made audible their love for the city. Welch said she missed the sound of kids laughing in groups. Chavez has been joking that she can’t wait to argue with a cabby again. Norin realized how much he’d been tuning out with headphones.
“Now, I miss every sound on the album — the hectic park on the weekend, having a beer at a bar, and even the commute,” he said. “I think the common denominator for all of us is the sound of people. That is what I miss the most.”
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