Iain Chambers

*100 copies limited edition* “I’ve been making recordings of the sounds of Parisian architecture. Specifically those buildings in concrete often labelled brutalist – a term many architects dislike. Some of these early recordings found their way into Langham Research Centre’s Tape Works (Vol. 2) album. Now for this new composition I’ve brought them together with new lockdown recordings from beyond Paris’s Péripherique – the dual carriageway that contains the historic city.

These new town centres were built in the 60s and 70s. The communist suburbs – les banlieues rouges – made social housing their first priority and commissioned daring new buildings, like Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie’s work at Ivry-sur-Seine. As a non-sequential guide I used the Brutalist Map of Paris, published by Blue Crow Media in 2017. Some of these buildings look utopian to me, suggesting different ways we could make spaces for our communities. They also suggest different textures and acoustics, and immediately got me thinking about describing the spaces through music and sound design.

“Concrete Paris” is also a radiophonic feature commissioned by BBC Radio 3, featuring some of the architects of the buildings alongside the people who live there. This new speechless version features just the sounds of the buildings themselves.” - Iain Chambers