For spring break, I visited El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. I was interested in recording some cityscapes of Ciudad Juarez so I made ambient recordings at various locations. My goal with this project was not to represent the locations with a straightforward recording, but to piece together several recordings into a cohesive soundscape that represents my mental image of that location.


Neighborhood: Ciudad Juarez


Cathedral Square: Ciudad Juarez



The first recording is of a small, upper-class neighborhood in Juarez. It was tucked away a little ways off of the street. All of the houses looked unique.
This location shows a side of the city that many people don't think of when they imagine Ciudad Juarez, a city of 1.5 million. Next I went looking for more urban locations...

First stop, a city square with a large cathedral.

This location was excellent, there were store fronts with music blaring (listen closely for Phil Collins) and people going about their business. However, I really wanted to fill it out with some standing traffic and car passes. So I found a location where these elements were abundant.


There is always a line to cross the bridges between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. This is where most of the standing traffic and car passes in the City Square sound scape were recorded.