Listen to the first 10 minutes of Glenn Gould’s radio documentary, “The Idea of North”. The idea of North 10min.wav or Files are here (experimenting with different sizes and file types). If possible, use headphones.  Record your impressions in a paragraph or two.

The opening voice of the lady is layered with another voice of a man who seem to be talking about a similar topic. Then another man’s voice cuts in. The reoccurring word which always comes through is the word ‘north’ and so lets me know that they all share a common experience of being in the north. I find listening to all these voices unsettling, confusing and really annoying. For instance, the woman is talking about a beautiful sunset, the lakes and the ducks and geese. She paints a beautiful image but I struggle to paint a serene picture in my mind due to the busyness of what I am hearing. The voices intercutting and overlapping each other create a feeling of restlessness. Most of the speakers sound older, their voices having a slightly raspy sound. When the narrator comes in, relaying his story, the voices are still talking in the background, but at a lower volume. Eventually the background speaking dies down and it is nice to finally hear some soundscapes happening. Eventually though, the background noises escalate to a very distracting level so that the lead voice of the documentary struggles to anchor itself as the main focus. So perhaps it isn’t? I don’t think these distracting noises and levels were an accident. I think they were all intentional, which makes this documentary a very different one; I can see it frustrating, confusing and deterring audiences from listening to the entire thing.