How did Europe sound during the coronavirus pandemic? What connects the lockdown experience across the continent? This sound composition created by Mara Maracinescu features 21 distinct recordings from 17 European countries, made between March and May 2020 during the first European COVID-19 lockdown.

The main purpose of the research and resulting composition was to trace the impact of the lockdown on European soundscapes: new rituals or types of gathering that appeared; changes in the ambient soundscape, due to lower traffic, or the amplified presence of the State’s voice, for example through loudspeakers.

This research is part of the "Documenting Covid" project conducted by the House of European History, to collect evidence of life in Europe during the pandemic, focusing on the phenomena of solidarity, hope and community building. Explore the project in more detail here: https://historia-europa.ep.eu/en/hist...

About the artist

Mara Maracinescu, sound artist, editor and achivist, born 1985, lives and works in Bucharest, Romania. Interested in acoustic ecology (soundscape studies) she records, archives, edits and mixes urban sounds and audio research as diverse as Romanian emigration to the United States and violence in adolescent couples. She writes the following about the project:

“The soundscape composition itself was structured so as to best show the mood and urban soundscape changes that were encountered during the lockdown period. It starts and ends with the silence of limited/no traffic cities. It also begins with the voice of various state announcements to stay indoors, wear masks, keep a distance, etc. It continues with the sounds of clapping, slowly building up, clapping that turns into the sounds of protesting. It then quietens to allow for some church bells and chanting sounds to begin, another exercise in community different from that of the clapping. Then it slows down to a couple of distinct, isolated recordings of different types of silences (whether at cultural spots that were heavily trafficked before, or backyard/balcony silences with domestic sounds, music in the distance, and even the silence of a coffee making ritual done inside).”