This morning I visited the SCNF train depot in Mericourt (about 15 minutes cycle from Lens) where I had an invitation to record the various sounds in the repair workshop. This had taken quite a while to organise and so when this morning arrived with the news that their was a train workers’ strike, I wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen: whether there was going to be nothing to record (as tools would have been downed) or whether it would be easier to record as there would be less ambient noise…. When I got there, there seemed to be a fair bit of work going on, although I learned that maybe 80% of the workers were absent. The result was that I was able to move around fairly freely, without getting in anyone’s way, and I spent a very pleasant morning with my guides David and Alexander exploring the different sonic qualities of the inner workings of the trains.
