West Coast Container Terminal, Port of Keelung, 28th February, 2024
基隆港西岸貨櫃集散站, 2024年2月28日
Looking back on 2024, I have to admit that my recording efforts were rather disappointing. I originally had no intention of sharing this recording, mainly because I prefer the sounds of forests and other natural environments. I tend to categorize industrial, traffic, and urban sounds as “noise,” and generally have little interest in recording or listening to them.
Of course, many people might disagree with this perspective. When I came across this recording again and decided to upload it to my website, my attitude was somewhat defeatist: “Well, my website isn’t exclusively about nature recordings anyway, so why not share some noise for a change?”
During the long weekend around February 28, 2024, I visited Keelung Lighthouse. From the entrance, looking toward the shoreline, you can see the container terminal on the west coast of Keelung Harbor. Here, you can hear the machinery operating and the containers clanging against one another at close range as they are loaded and unloaded.
Since it was a holiday, quite a few visitors came to see the lighthouse. Every now and then, someone would ask what I was doing, sometimes wondering if I was operating a drone. When I explained that I was recording sound, they would become curious about the furry windscreen covering my microphone and ask what it was for. As a result, most of the recording is filled with the chatter and commotion of visitors.
The excerpt shared above is one of the sections with fewer voices, allowing the low-frequency industrial sounds to come through more clearly.
📍 Location: 25.154863, 121.747404 Keelung City, Taiwan
🌤 Weather: 23°C, Cloudy, 75% Humidity
🌿 Ambient Sound: Vehicle and Machinery Noise, People Talking
🎤 Setup: Sennheiser MKH 8040 (ORTF), Sound Devices Mixpre-6 II
基隆港貨櫃集散站, 2024年2月
回顧整個 2024 年，我的錄音成果可謂乏善可陳。原本我並不打算分享這段錄音，主要是因為我更喜歡森林或其他自然環境的聲音。對我而言，工業、交通或都市環境中的聲音，通常都被歸類為「噪音」，因此我很少主動錄製或聆聽。
不過，或許有不少人並不認同這樣的看法。後來，我偶然翻出這段錄音，決定還是把它放上網站。當時的心態多少有些自暴自棄：「反正我的網站也不是專門分享自然錄音的，既然如此，分享這類噪音又何妨？」
2024 年的二二八連假期間，我去了基隆燈塔。從燈塔入口望向岸邊，映入眼簾的便是基隆港西岸的貨櫃集散站。在這裡，可以近距離聽見貨櫃裝卸作業時，機具運轉與貨櫃碰撞所產生的聲響。
由於正值假期，前來參觀燈塔的遊客不少。偶爾有人好奇地問我在做什麼，是不是在操作空拍機。直到我解釋自己是在錄音，他們才轉而好奇地詢問，麥克風外面那層毛茸茸的防風罩究竟是什麼。因此，整段錄音大多充斥著遊客的交談與喧鬧聲。
這次分享的片段，是其中人聲較少的一段，可以清楚聽見充滿低頻的工業聲響。