Metal Pipes and the Church Bell

Recorded at Sheshi Skënderbej, near the Et’hem Bej Mosque in Tirana, this field recording documents the opening moment of a soundwalk through the city center. The soundscape is structured primarily by pedestrian footsteps, which form a continuous cyclical rhythm of urban circulation. Construction activity introduces intermittent metallic impacts and infrastructural noise, marking the ongoing transformation of the square and operating as a dominant background rhythm of contemporary urban life. These sounds intersect with the sound of church bell, traffic, and everyday pedestrian movement, producing a dense polyrhythmic field in which multiple temporalities overlap without forming a unified whole. Wind noise is intentionally retained in the recording, not as interference but as part of the atmospheric rhythm of the urban environment, shaping perception alongside social activity. Within this layered sonic field, the ringing of church bells introduces a distinct cyclical temporal marker, briefly structuring shared urban time across the square. Together, these elements reveal Sheshi Skënderbej as a space where social, infrastructural, and atmospheric rhythms continuously intersect and interfere.