75 Steps

This is a set of field recordings and sound collages made near the Georgetown University campus in Washington DC in August, 2024. All sounds were recorded near the top of the concrete staircase known as the “Exorcist steps,” popular among horror fans for their featured role in that film and among joggers as a difficult, steep climb. Sounds include insect noise, from 2024’s double-brood of 13-year and 17-year cicadas; chapel bells; airplanes and ambulances; the passing conversation of tourists; and joggers’ laboured breathing.

The first piece is a sound collage that aims to capture the layers of an overdetermined space—a university campus, horror film location, tourist site, and the space of ordinary commuting and exercise. All sounds come from the field recordings themselves, and although some have been processed to bring out their unsettling or uncanny dimensions, the main interest of the piece is in the confluence of the site’s different layers: in particular natural sound—the double brood of cicadas—as it blends with multiple kinds of human interaction with this space: conversations about the house of the demon, or the sounds of running out of breath.

The rest of the album consists of the original, unprocessed field recordings: Chapel bells with cicada and street noise; tourist conversation and joggers’ breath; the footsteps of my own climb up the staircase; and three distinct flavours of cicada drone, from almost soothing background white noise to harsh grating that blends with mechanical, construction, and airplane noise.