Lasse-Marc Riek

This work explores the acoustic ecology of constant airplane overflights from the perspective of everyday life. The recordings were made weekly, once a month, throughout the year, and condensed into a single duration. The result reflects on the expression and intervention in a landscape, revealed through the layering of sound.

The images of flight paths were captured in a flight corridor near Frankfurt Airport, cutting through the small town of Hanau Steinheim in Hesse. A search for images of the town reveals a place of picturesque tranquility, with beautiful historic architecture and lush greenery—castle towers peeking out from behind trees, spacious and pleasant town squares. Indeed, in the two half-hour pieces that make up Flight Tracks, I can hear evidence of this serene existence struggling to persist amid the noise of constant flights. Birdsong fills the air, bouncing off the idle chime of church bells and merging with the hum of insect life. Dogs bark. Children playfully scream. It feels like summer—the sounds of nature are vibrant, communicating across courtyards, basking in warmth and sunlight.

And yet, this scene is overshadowed by the deep roar of airplanes; the crackle of aircraft ripping through the sky; the Doppler-shifted whine of an engine passing overhead in a long, mournful glide. Instead of church bells echoing freely through the alleys and squares of Hanau Steinheim, they are immediately swallowed by the noise. Birdsong is mercilessly muffled, unable to engage in an open dialogue. These sounds are typically the markers of a town at rest, gentle exhalations of melody and conversation, soothing inhalations of quiet. But when forced to exist within such an overwhelming drone, they begin to feel like signals—probes searching for a way through the fog, confirming the presence of life within, like faint lighthouse beams in the midst of a storm.

I’m unsure how much of Flugspuren is invention—whether Riek has amplified an occasional hum into a persistent, oppressive acoustic pollution—but the scene he portrays is one of daily life trying to coexist with the noise, insisting on the ordinary as if deaf to the overpowering din that smothers it.

The work was first broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur on 25 April 2016.