The stats to date: Day 7 provided roughly 1450 raw samples yielding roughly 320 chosen samples.
The sum of the 7 days’ recording so far is roughly 6791 total listened-to samples yielding roughly 1989 chosen samples.
This was the heaviest recording day to date (though I know we have at least one heavier one coming up). This day’s work included disparate areas which offered up a rainbow of different sounds, and so the hope of hearing something new and fresh, of rediscovering the Eiffel Tower’s sounds, was a great incentive.
A VIEW FROM THE OFFICE! Joseph Bertolozzi's TOWER MUSIC - Image (c) 2013 Franc Palaia
The Summit
We trolled the Summit’s girders, soffits and stairwells as well as a chamber that is off-limits to the public. Here we found pure bell/vibraphone-like tones that will be useful in melodic phrases.
The Neck
Moving down from the summit we reach the “neck” of the Tower, another restricted area only accessible via the maintenance catwalks. Because it was in a restricted zone, our photos are still awaiting approval from the administration to be released, but believe me when I tell you the views were spectacular. Imagine being 950 feet in the air with an unobstructed view all around you (the railing was no more than 4 feet high without a security fencing above it; meant only for workers, there would be no need for such extra precautions. I can only liken it to being in a hot air balloon.
Recording challenges
Navigating our equipment thru the narrow stairs, about 30 inches wide with a little more space at the landings, required attention and stamina. Engineer Joe Popp made it a point to carry his Pelican gear case all the way down w/o help just to be able to say he walked the entire tower carrying it. Though the goal was getting old as he neared the bottom, he completed his task. Kudos!
Everyone had to secure everything they had so that nothing would accidentally fall. I had been tying my sticks to carabiners on my belt loops all thru the project (an official stipulation) and was used to it, but the problem came when we had to hand things to each other, mics, cables, sticks, pencils, chalk, etc. We all moved in slooow motion and alerted each other to something coming their way (“Paul, I’m handing you the headphones now.” “Thanks Joe, I have the headphones,” etc.).
Finally there was the wind! While it was a nice 60-ish degrees with a warm breeze down at street level, 950 ft in the air it was about 40 degrees with 40-50 mph winds. Once, the wind blew a drumstick out of my grip, which I immediately caught before it left my hand. We were leaning into the wind to remain upright, and that takes a lot of effort. On many of the recordings you can hear the wind pummeling the mics before we cupped our hands around them to minimize the noise so I could begin to play. Then of course there was the chance of some piece of equipment being blown to the floor or side and getting damaged.
The Bumpers
We ultimately made it down to the bottom, wrapping up by heading over to the South Leg to record an area near one of the service elevators. There we found bright yellow tubes and rails acting as bumpers to guard the delivery pallets from hitting and damaging the walls. Sounding like rich, underwater bells, this was a worthwhile end to the day’s work.
l.-r.: Kyle Griffin, Joe Popp, Paul Kozel, Joseph Bertolozzi. Image (c.) 2013 Franc Palaia
Here are some team members at the apartment after a full day’s recording putting in another 4-5 hours to upload, backup & organize the files as we also plan for the next day’s work. L-R: Kyle Griffin, Joe Popp, Paul Kozel, Joseph Bertolozzi.
Yup, you guessed it…Day 8 starts tomorrow.
Keep track of Tower Music on a variety social media platforms:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/eiffeltowermusic
Twitter: www.twitter.com/JosephBertolozz
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/joseph-bertolozzi/14/42b/710
… and using the hashtag #TowerMusic at all of the above.