Geolocative audio tour links past with present in Vietnam’s capital city

“Hanoi Soundwalk” has been back to town for the second time with more worthwhile, free experiences.

Getting started on Saturday, the tour is part of the “Locative Audio” project, which is jointly organized by British national Josh Kopecek, who holds a doctoral degree in music, Mathias Rossignol, a Frenchman who has a doctorate in information technology, and some Vietnamese artists and scholars.

As participants take leisure strolls in the capital’s old town, they will hear sounds on their 3G-connected smartphones.

The sounds, which vary according to the participants’ position, are those iconic of the capital city and its people’s life around a century ago, such as the clanks of bicycle chains and trams, a well-loved old tune, peddlers’ ware cries, haunting “ca tru” (northern Vietnamese ceremonial singing) melodies or excerpts of iconic traditional music performances.

The recordings are aimed at helping revive sounds which have seemingly fallen into oblivion amidst the hustle and bustle of today’s fast-paced life, the organizer says on their website.

At its core, Soundwalk is a smartphone app and a map of sounds. To explore a Soundwalk, the phone must be equipped with GPS and, optionally, other location technologies.

When participants open a Soundwalk map, sounds will be played as if they were hearing them from a point, like surround sound, except for the arena which is the real world.

“Hanoi Soundwalk” is scheduled to come to an end later on Sunday.

The tour debuted in April last year in the capital. It was the first time such an event had been held in a Southeast Asian country, the organizer says.

Over 100 people, including 10 visually impaired youths, embarked on the “sonic vision” tour at the Grand Cathedral and finished at Dong Xuan Market – two of the capital’s icons.

Apart from Hanoi, last year’s project took place in 11 other places in the world, including Virginia (U.S.), Oxford (U.K.), Valencia (Spain), and Avignon (France).

The tour was held in Copenhagen – Denmark’s capital – in September.