Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Sound Clip: Pitworker by Panoptic Sweep

This piece grew out of a single sound recording that I stumbled upon online a few years ago. The recording originated from this webpage. I was intrigued by the desolate and eerily beautiful pictures taken on a trip to Chernobyl. The mp3 recording is of an elevator in an old Soviet-style high-rise. There was, I felt, an immediate atmosphere of foreboding to it. Elevators I consider to be classic horror-film staples and the noisier the better. The visual metaphor of being taken to ‘another level’ works for me every time. The recording is called ‘Soviet elevator of doom’. Very evocative. I know not from the recording itself which direction the elevator was going. Nevertheless, I took the idea of descending to ‘another level’ and ran with it. I added samples from multiple sources, including my own field recordings and synth work.

Thank you to Timm Suess for sharing his experience and allowing me to use his recording.