Sounds of Hamm

Discovery | Inspiration

Every city has layers. The first time you visit, you may only pay attention to the main sights – museums, monuments, the high street and such. Visit again and again, and you’ll find yourself going deeper. Depending on your interests, you’ll probably check out some street art, a contemporary arts centre, or head to an offbeat neighbourhood.

The more you visit, the more the city will reveal itself to you, unfurling layer after layer, showing hidden details you may have overlooked the first time. Yes, the use of the word ‘overlooked’ is not casual here. We live in a visual world – everywhere we go, we are surrounded by visual stimuli, so it comes as no surprise that we get to know places mainly through our eyes.

What if we used other senses instead? The Sounds of Hamm experience aims to do exactly that, inviting travellers to discover the city of Hamm, in the Ruhr region of Germany, through its sounds.

Similarly to many other Ruhr cities, Hamm is known for its industrial background. Furnaces and drills were turned off decades ago, and industrial infrastructures have been given a new purpose. The best known example of this is the Glaselefant, a coal sorting house turned into a giant steel and glass elephant you can climb onto.

In recent years, Hamm reinvented itself, becoming a rising creativity hotspot. This may appear surprising at first – after all, young, art-minded people usually leave small towns like Hamm, in search of the buzzing atmospheres you may find in larger cities like Berlin or Hamburg.

A group of local young artists went against this trend, and stayed in town to promote creative projects in Hamm and around. This is how Gallery of Disciplines was born – a creative hub hosting concerts, exhibitions, workshops and now audio walking tours, like Sounds of Hamm.

You’ll be given audio equipment – headphones to isolate background noise, a microphone and an audio recorder. Guided by an artist, you’ll be led on a path of discovery through the city. At each stop, you’ll be invited to explore independently and record sounds that feel the most meaningful to you.

When the static, fixed visual dimension of a city is taken away, the place reveals itself as a dynamic reality; a flow of sensations that change not only across time, but are also perceived differently in the same place, at the same time, by two different people.

Marghe

Italian travel writer, creator of The Crowded Planet

Margherita Ragg is an Italian travel writer, creator of The Crowded Planet, a sustainable travel blog. She enjoys hiking, running, eating ramen, and spending time outdoors.

Meet the bloggers

Marghe

Italian travel writer, creator of The Crowded Planet

Margherita Ragg is an Italian travel writer, creator of The Crowded Planet, a sustainable travel blog. She enjoys hiking, running, eating ramen, and spending time outdoors.

Sebastian Becker

Born in Duisburg and a resident of Essen, Sebastian Becker has a deep affinity with his home region, the Ruhr area and its inhabitants. Besides his work as a professional photographer, especially for weddings and cultural events, he runs the blog pottspott (https://pottspott.squarespace.com), in which he repeatedly introduces interesting people and inviting places of the Ruhr area. INTERNET: www.becker-hochzeitsfoto.de FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/becker.fotografie INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/becker.fotografie INTERNET: www.pottspott.de FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/pottspottde INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/pottspott_

During Sounds of Hamm, the script for travellers is completely reversed. From consumers, they become creators; from witnesses, they become protagonists, crafting their own story one sound at a time.

The expedition starts at Hamm HBF, the main train station. On ‘conventional’ guided tours, stations are rarely featured – but if sounds are what you’re after, this place is a real treasure trove. From whistles to clangs, from chatter to the flap of a bird’s wing – the station is where the pulse of the city beats fastest, and you’ll be able to grab the ephemeral nature of sounds with your recorder.

After the train station, it’s time to head to pedestrian areas in the city centre. The piercing shrill of metal on metal will give way to voices, footsteps, the tinkling of water in a fountain. Listen to people around you – can you hear different languages? What are people saying? If you can’t understand German, even better. Just concentrate on the sounds, and imagine life stories going on all around you.

The third stop will be Musik Hans, a music shop where you’ll be able to listen to the sound of Hokema, an instrument inspired by the Kalimba from Sub-Saharan Africa, made with a thin metal plate with one end attached to a piece of wood. When a metal plate is pressed and released, it creates a dreamy percussive sound, the perfect break from the rough sounds of the city.

The tour also includes lunch at Vintage Residence, a charming café designed by an artist where you’ll get the opportunity to rest your senses and exchange impressions with other people on the tour.

After lunch, it’s time for coffee at Bebuna Kaffeemanufaktur, a coffee shop and roastery located in an old mill. Gian Luca, the owner of Bebuna, may even roast some coffee beans for you, so that you can watch and – most importantly – listen to the whole process, and include it in your own personal soundscape.

The tour will end back at Gallery of Disciplines, where your audio material will be collected and mixed into a unique track of sound collage. You’ll receive a one-of-a kind audio souvenir to take home, to remind you of your Hamm experience forever.

The Sounds of Hamm tour is a creative experience for everyone, including people that may not define themselves as art-minded. The act of exploring the sounds of the city becomes, by itself, a form of artistic creation.

You’ll be moving through uncharted territory in perpetual evolution, giving shape to constant flow via the unique filter of your own senses and emotions. The result will be your very own Sound of Hamm – the proof that there’s an artist deep within each one of us.

Sebastian Becker

Marghe

Italian travel writer, creator of The Crowded Planet

Relive our emotions

Over the last decade, the German town of Hamm transformed itself from industrial powerhouse to creativity hub. Explore this buzzing Ruhr town in a completely new way, getting deep into its soul through sounds, and record your very own Hamm soundtrack to take home.