this is one of my favorite sounds in the city of chicago. for the past 3 years i've heard this noise almost everytime i walk over a particular grate in the sidewalk on clark street. some days the noise is loud, and on other days the noise is faint so you have to strain to hear it. either way, as far as i can tell other people don't seem to notice it as they walk by in their hurry to get to work.


i always wonder what the sound is and what is making the sound. the noise stopped for about a month and i wondered what happened. i thought that maybe someone fixed something and that resulted in the absence of the noise. luckily after a period of time the noise returned. now though, the noise isn't as reliable as it once was. instead of the noise being an everyday occurrence, it occurs only intermittently. it seems that since i began recording things around the city, the noise has been completely absent again. luckily as i walked by today i heard the familiar drone of what can best be described as an urban didgeridoo. though today was one of the days the noise wasn't at its loudest, i captured it anyway. i'll try to record it again when it sounds a little louder and there isn't as much traffic passing.