ERIC LA CASA Barrières Mobiles (BookCD by Swarming)

Éric La Casa has frequently focused on the fascinating qualities of the more mundane sounds of Paris. On Barri​è​res Mobiles, he turns his attention to a relatively recent feature of Parisian daily life: the mobile barriers that were erected in response to the November 2015 terrorist attacks. “The public space has been covered with these barriers, which, over the last decade, summer and winter, day and night, have become the symbols of low-noise security in everyday life,” La Casa writes. For this album, he set about “hearing how these objects themselves perceive the city” by attaching contact mics to the barriers to record the sounds produced by their movement. Huge resonant echoes dominate the soundscape as wind makes the steel structures shake, but we also hear the noises of the city from a distance—children playing, people talking, hurried footsteps—as if eavesdropping on a lively scene from inside a rattling cage. Matthew Blackwell, March 28, 2023, The Best Field Recordings on Bandcamp: March 2023

Eric La Casa is a French sound artist who has worked in the field of sound creation since the early nineties through recording, record production, installation, radio and various types of publications.
'Barri​è​res Mobiles' is a sound story told from the perspective of a series of mobile metal barriers that were put up around Paris after the 2015 terrorist attacks. These metal barriers were placed at the entrances to public buildings (schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, museums, town halls, police stations, etc...) which become the symbol for low-noise security in daily life. These recordings were captured by environmental contact microphones.
In these dark and muted recordings you will hear eerie steel clangs and the vast mysterious echoes that follow, metal barriers shuddering and rattling, low frequency rumblings that swirl through these ominous soundscapes, the distant cacophony of human voices - talking and screaming away, howling wind noises, the hollowing shimmering of objects making contact with steel, some sort of mechanical chugging, industrial grinding, random rustling movements, crows cawing, spooky ambience, very faint traces of some type of music playing and a variety of abstract noises and drones that haunt this dark sonic environment.
'Barri​è​res Mobiles' is an eerie and haunting audio portrayal of a troubled world from the point of view of an inanimate object that's used as a symbol and a reminder of the violence and tragedy that plagues our existence on a everyday basis.
It is also a fascinating sound journey, and a mesmerizing work of art. The natural creaking and rattling of these metal barriers that are left outside and exposed to the elements, along with the (maybe) not-so-naturally-occuring accompanying sounds makes for a very interesting listen. AudioCrackle May 2023