Diversity and soundscapes of Vila do Bispo recorded in new archive

Almost 300 sounds have already been recorded for posterity, and the project is still ongoing. Since last summer, the people of Vila do Bispo have been observing microphones throughout the municipality, recording soundscapes, sounds of work, and sounds of nature.

The Vila do Bispo Sound Archive, promoted by O Corvo e a Raposa Cultural Association, has the support of the municipality of Vila do Bispo and the Vila do Bispo Museum – Celeiro da História, the entity that will hold the sound heritage recorded throughout this project, which began in 2024.

Carlos Norton is responsible for the recordings, through the partner association Fungo Azul, and despite his extensive experience in similar collections (such as the Algarve Landscape Sound Archive, LAT66, ASCM), he confesses to being enthusiastic about a municipality that, as he describes it, "in addition to its enormous scenic, human and heritage beauty, has a very interesting and stimulating sound diversity."

So far, sounds such as the interior of the Vila do Bispo market, the herds near Hortas, dolphin watching from a boat, surfers talking about the waves, or the crowd entering a concert at the Igreja Matriz are examples of what fills this archive, which aims to be a record of the sonic memory of the municipality of Vila do Bispo as it is today.

According to Ana Celorico Machado, from the promoting association O Corvo e a Raposa, based in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, "we sought to map the territory, creating a sound time capsule, in which we can rediscover the memory of a place in the sounds of nature and human activities, in the intersection of both, a concrete and abstract record simultaneously."

Sound, as a testament to the present, to ways of life and current conditions, will serve as a way of remembering a time in constant transformation, especially because, as the promoters point out, "one of the project's lines of action is to reinforce the sound recordings of the place as identity and narrative."