Show 755: A night in Letea by Toni Dimitrov (for Kanal 103)

At the end of Jun of 2019, a group of sound artists went on a 2 weeks trip to the distant village of Letea, at the Danube delta in Romania. The purpose was to records field recordings and soundscapes of this remote place and experiment with them. After a flight, a long trip with bus and a trip with a boat, we put our stuff at a back of a truck and head towards Letea on a sandy and bumpy road. There was nothing much in this place except vast wetlands, frogs, lots of mosquitos and of course sounds. Lots of sounds. Exactly what we needed for our purpose there. The days were very hot and humid, but also quiet, and not much interesting sound wise. Opposite to this, the nights were full of mosquitos, but also noise that was appearing immediately after the sunset. The complete darkness full of stars was perfect for recordings these soundscapes. The forest, the wild horses, frogs, mosquitos, the boat trips, the Lipovean babushkas and the rich quietness of the Danube Delta were the true leitmotif of our stay there.

At one point at the end of our stay we also did 24 hours open channel at LOCUS SONUS, preceded by a live radio show, presenting stories and glamorous raw recordings in a broadcast from our beautiful traditional wood house. We opened the microphones installed on the straw roof, on the South border of the village, by a small and charming channel of the Danube, full of wildlife positively expressive at that time of the night and day, for the listeners to dive into. This is a small part of what we were listening to those days at Letea.

Recorded and produced by Toni Dimitrov during Sonic Future Residencies in Danube Delta, 2019, organised by www.semisilent.ro.