Pete Stollery and I landed in a snowy St Petersburg late last night. Our contact here, composer Alexander Radvilovich, very kindly collected us from the airport and pointed out some amazing landmarks on the way to our hotel (including an incredibly dramatic statue of Lenin and the beautiful St Isaac’s Cathedral).
Today, Pete and I – and one of Alexander’s musicology students, Darya – wandered the streets of St Petersburg wearing headcams and binaural microphones, each of us documenting our individual journey towards the sea. Despite some technical difficulties, I think that we’ve managed to gather some very interesting material.
Tomorrow, Pete and I will visit Vasilevskiy Island and make some more sound and video recordings. Following that, our plan is to visit the Hermitage and Palace Square.
The internet connection where we are (which is a bar/restaurant named “The Idiot” after Dostoevsky’s novel…) is quite sporadic and unreliable. This seems to be a bit of a problem (at least, for us) around St Petersburg in general. However, we should hopefully have some audio and video recordings to share very soon. In the meantime, here are some photos that I took around the city today:
The frozen Neva River:
St Isaac’s Cathedral:
Arriving at The Idiot:
-Ross
Looks amazing… Warmer than Scotland?!
Wow, I am very envious of you guys. Looking forward to listening to some sounds and watching video clips!
From sunny, warm New Mexico.
Jun