~ of many movements and thresholds ~

Sonic Diary
by Nithin Shams

What are the ways in which a city shapes one’s own practices, perceptions, and preoccupations? The author reflects on this question through his composition that opens up portals into the many memories of his time spent in Delhi, India, through a mix of field recordings, conversations, voices, and sounds from his journal. The piece, for him, becomes a sonic trace of the city that stays on with him as he continues his movement across other locations and experiences.

In this sonic diary, inspired by «Doors of Perception» by Hildegard Westerkamp, I offer portals into the thresholds of my memory from the time I lived in Delhi from 2016 to 2021. During those six years, Delhi in many ways opened «doors of perception» for me, through the many experiences, mentors, and friends who helped me develop an interest and practice with sound and listening. Through this piece, I also want to pay homage to two of my special teachers and friends, Michael Northam and Damon Yaghoobi.

This piece is a record, an audio document of many movements, moving through the city with my field recorder, sometimes restless, sometimes performative, sometimes political, sometimes sublime, sometimes restful, sometimes playful, sometimes with company, sometimes without, but always listening.

continue and slowly lower the volume and pan to a side
while one door opens and the next voice appears

It’s next to impossible to nail down what the essence of a city such as Delhi is, but what is possible is to listen. As I shift continents to study sound professionally for the first time, this piece is a way for me to tie little Delhi knots onto a memory line, to listen to 20 years from now.

These are names that I have given to the audio files from my Delhi field recordings archive. I am sharing them here in the order that they have been used in the piece:

  1. Park-next-to-home-in-vasant-kunj.wav
  2. paper-collector-calls-vasant-kunj.wav
  3. Aryya-hindustani-prodigy.wav
  4. Aditya-nithin-improv at vasant kunj.wav
  5. slicing_vegetables_mom_youtubecookingchannel.wav
  6. improvisation _with_a_dry_branch@professor-aseem’s house.wav
  7. Defence_Colony_Azan.wav
  8. Michael_Northam_Ashoka_On_Sound_Art.wav
  9. Janata_curfew-noise concert.wav
  10. nizamuddin_curious_kids_playing_cricket.wav
  11. Damoon Yaghoobi_playing_the_violin in Gurgaon.wav
  12. thomas:does_it_feel_lonely?.wav

This sonic diary is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Delhi», curated and edited by Suvani Suri.

Project Assistance: Geetanjali Kalta
Graphics/Visual Design: Upendra Vaddadi, Neelansh Mittra
Audio Production: Abhishek Mathur
Video Production: Ammar

Biography

Nithin Shams’ artistic practice is centered around opening sonic portals to facilitate listeners to enter an open, empathetic, and attentive state of mind. Guided by intuitive processes and practices of deep listening, Nithin composes and curates listening spaces aimed at blurring the boundaries between the self and the other, opening up a space for reflection as well as slowness. Nithin is currently engaged in an artistic research project where he is recording the call of the azan as it reverberates through the cities, towns, and villages of India. Follow him on Instagram, Facebook, X, or SoundCloud.

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This is a collection of songs bringing together myriad voices from the city of Delhi, where multiple realities collide and co-exist.

Published on September 29, 2023

Last updated on April 09, 2024

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Belonging
City
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