Laura, Joking at Edgware Road Station

Reimagined by Robert van Riel.

"I have listened to the original recording of the Edgeware Road Station ticket hall quite few times and was convinced that there were a few stories in it. There are two people who can be heard quite clearly and some voices in the background. And a lovely announcement at the end. One of the great samples is of a passing train with a beautiful rhythm. But the asking manner in which a man call: “Laura?” and a woman and her friend exchanging (apparent) disappointments, ending with the outcry “You must be joking", are two of the lines I immediately combined. I thought about a blind date on the station, where a man finds Laura, who, in turn, is somewhat disappointed by his appearance and first ideas about what to do next. Instead of editing and sampling the original sound file, I decided to just sample the voices and edit those, and leave the rest of the sound file unaltered, except for some volume adjustments and fades at the beginning and end. I added a piece original music to it, which had to have a bit of sadness in it, because of the date going wrong. The music is made on an iPad, with an electric piano app, an arpeggiator and effects. And that is: Laura, Joking on Edgeware Road Station."

Part of our project The Next Station, reimagining the sounds of the London Underground and creating the first ever tube sound map. August 2016 - for more information see www.citiesandmemory.com/thenextstation