Bus Dreams

Field Recording–Based Audio Work

Project Description

Bus Dreams is a sound-based composition created entirely from field recordings captured during a single 45-minute bus ride through New York City. Using a handheld recorder, the full duration of the trip was documented, preserving the incidental rhythms, voices, and mechanical sounds of public transit as raw material for composition.

Rather than layering external instrumentation, the work reconfigures these recordings into a musical structure through sampling and transformation. Familiar sounds—such as the bus stop request chime, passenger laughter, footsteps, shifting bags, and the opening and closing of doors—are isolated and repurposed as melodic, rhythmic, and percussive elements. These sounds are processed and sequenced to reveal patterns embedded within the everyday acoustic environment.

Composed in Ableton using sampler-based instruments built from the original recordings, Bus Dream blurs the boundary between documentation and composition. The piece treats public transit not only as subject matter, but as an improvised ensemble, highlighting how collective movement and incidental sound can function as musical material when approached through attentive listening.

Field recording, composition, and sound transformation by Travis T Wicklund.