‘Oslo: Real-Surreal’ journeys through three compositions. The journey begins with the ‘Oslo Sound Space Transport System’, which is an interactive 3-D sound map allowing infinite paths through Oslo’s real acoustics and surreal sound-scenes. We visit some popular sonic sights: the Cathedral, the Central Station and the Opera; park, museum and swimming pool areas at Tøyen; an old wooden house on the edge of the city; and a journey to the cavernous reverberation of Vigeland’s Mausoleum. We next land on a ship in the Oslo Fjord for ‘Under the Sea Floor (Coring and Strata)’. The ship we are on is a drilling vessel, sampling huge craters called ‘pock marks’ that are strewn over   the Oslo Fjord seafloor. From the deck we fall beneath the waves, and journey further into the strata of the Earth’s crust. Here we hear what is hidden from view. The theme of ‘hidden sounds’ then continues into the final part of the journey: ‘Gentle Sediment’, made from barely audible sounds recorded in an area in northwest Oslo, which in 2008 experienced the transition into an urbanized soundscape.

Natasha Barret