In the column “Listen with…”, Soundtrackcity interviews residents of De Pijp about the significance of sound in their lives. What sounds do they hear and what sounds do they find appropriate in their living environment? For this eleventh episode, we speak with Herrie, for whom a loudspeaker is a “soft screamer”.
Herrie’s (70) life revolves around sound, even his name, which he came up with himself by changing just one letter, reflects this. From the beginning of his painting studies, he added audio to the art he created, and still creates (see photo). For the illegal radio station that Herrie once ran day and night with friends, they were always searching for the boundlessness of sound. And he lived up to his name by producing music and noise with shopping trolleys and guitars found on the street and in bands such as Waterband (Ex-Aquartet).
Herrie lives on Van Ostadestraat, close to Ferdinand Bol. It is busy there, too busy for some, but Herrie finds the trams, the traffic and the buzz of people on the street pleasant. He also enjoys the softer sounds, such as the fountain in the park, the sound of water and the rustling of the trees.
‘When you’re working with sound, you become much more aware of your surroundings. Sound is how you experience it yourself, what your brain makes of it; you can choose which sounds you want to experience as music.’
‘I have tinnitus. I think I got it from the city, but I can forget about it by paying more attention to something else. It suppresses the noise, which is a pity. With the radio, we were always looking for the unwanted extra beeps and tones, which we then deliberately played loudly.’
Herrie is happy in De Pijp; it’s much quieter here in the courtyard garden than in West, where he used to live. And it’s also more pleasant here, with pubs like Molli, where he sometimes goes.
‘What I do miss in De Pijp is a communal space where you can make a nice bit of noise together. All the houses in this neighbourhood have thin walls, so it would be nice to have a space where you can deal with sound differently without disturbing each other. Conversely, I also want to enjoy hearing the lives of my various neighbours.’
Listen with Noise is part of Urban Sound Lab’s Listen with… series, in which local residents, sound artists and architects listen to the city together. Together, they explore how to create a better-sounding city and how this contributes to the personal well-being of city dwellers. You can find the other episodes here.
