This soundscape comes from Westview Drive in Hastings, MN next to the 18th hole of the Hastings Golf Club. The recording was made at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14th, 2020. The recording device used was an iPhone 6 held at about waist level.

This location was a significant place for me to record as it represents the sounds I hear at my home, which is farther down the street, as well as the sounds that reflect the current status of my community. Living near the golf course, many of the sounds in my environment are related to the activities that go on there; there are more traffic-related sounds during popular golf times, there are often voices of people walking on the path around the course, and there aren’t as many “nature” sounds as the entire area is developed.

The sounds in this particular two minute soundscape do reflect this environment. The sounds of lawn mowers and grass trimmers are very prominent in this recording, an auditory record of the maintenance happening at the golf course. Archetypes of a golf course include the sound of a ball being hit and the sound of golf carts, but perhaps evidence of the course’s physical appearance are a forgotten archetypal sound. There are also sounds indicating that this was taken in a neighborhood, such as a car door being shut early in the recording and voices of a woman and a child. One of the last sounds in the recording is the mail truck’s brakes squealing as it turns the corner, a sound in the foreground which is a familiar sound to this neighborhood at this time of day, six days a week. Two sounds heard in this recording classified as “signals” are a car horn signifying a car being locked and the distant sound of the siren of an emergency vehicle warning other vehicles and people to get out of the way. Throughout the recording, the keynote is the birdsong heard both in the background and with more prominent chirps along with rustling of leaves.