Doors opening...

In March 2025 we made a series of recordings in and around the Barbican Centre, with the idea of those sounds being folded back into the Observatory Station sound installation, so that the sounds of the Barbican itself become part of the stories being told by sound from around the world. 

In this recording, we ride the lifts inside the Barbican Centre, taking a close listen to the announcements, closing and opening doors and lift mechanisms inside this brutalist wonder. At the end of the recording we emerge into a very busy cocktail bar, to the sounds of early evening merriment. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory.