Long out of print, few copies available: This project is a double-CD and booklet "Soundscape Vancouver" which includes most of the original recordings published in 1973 by the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University in its landmark study of the acoustic environment of Vancouver, plus new digital recordings and compositions made in the 1990s by Robert MacNevin that show the changes in Vancouver's soundscape in the intervening years.
Soundscape Studies is a field that was born in Vancouver through the World Soundscape Project under the direction of R. Murray Schafer in the early seventies. It was at that time that The Vancouver Soundscape was produced. It was probably the first comprehensive study and aural presentation of the soundscape of a city, and as such established a precedent that has been influential around the world. Recently various new CD's have appeared presenting the soundscapes of other cities (e.g. Amsterdam, Madrid, Brasilia, Lisbon and others). However, The Vancouver Soundscape has been long out of print and essentially become a collector's item.

Barry Truax, Hildegard Westerkamp, and recently Susan Frykberg, have continued the legacy of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University through a program of courses in Acoustic Communication. This work is now known throughout the world by many educators, composers, musicians, architects and people in other disciplines, and much consciousness has been raised towards the quality of the acoustic environment. In fact, in international circles Vancouver is recognized as the original centre for soundscape studies.

For this reason it is particularly timely to publish this double CD and booklet now which listens back into the seventies and "revisits" the Vancouver Soundscape 20 years later. Not only has there been an enormous change in the soundscape itself but also in the way the soundscape is documented and thought about. Audio technology and recording equipment can now be used in similarly portable ways as a camera and as a result the soundscape can be recorded, reproduced, composed and processed by more people than ever before. This was not possible 20 years ago.





The CD and booklet is not only meant to expand listeners' horizon towards Vancouver's soundscape and raise consciousness about its quality, but it also wants to raise questions such as: how do we listen and behave acoustically in everyday life; how can we acquire a "sense of place" and belonging from our soundscapes; are there ways to design liveable soundscapes in urban environments? At the same time it offers an artistic interpretation of the acoustic environment of Vancouver and presents the city as a "sounding" place.