Favorite Chicago Sounds

Help reveal the Chicago of the ear. Share your favorite sounds!

Sound mapping

Check out our newest feature -
a google map that visually tracks the sounds of the city!

Children's Museum exhibit
The Chicago Children's Museum has commissioned FCS' Jesse Seay to design a new sound sculpture featuring a variety of FCS recordings! The sculpture, which will be permanently installed in the entryway of the Museum, will evoke memories of the old-fashioned tin-can-telephone, inviting both children and adults to tactically experience the sounds of the city.

Time Out Chicago
The February 8 issue of Time Out Chicago hails FCS as one of three new projects that "elevate the bang, clatter and white noise of the city."
Read more.

Jukebox

Listen to a mix of Chicago sounds.

Pedagogical Factory
This past summer, FCS took part in Pedagogical Factory: Exploring Strategies for an Educated City, an interactive educational program co-sponsored by the Stockyard Institute and Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC).

We exhibited samples from the FCS catalog and hosted an audio workshop at HPAC, where we talked about our research and neighborhood recording with the Hyde Park community.

Read the Chicago Reader review of the show.
View images from the workshop.

Send us your link!
We want to post links to your field recording web sites! Please email us the link, an image if you have one (like your logo), and a brief (1-3 sentences) description that we can put next to it. We'll add it to our links page, which is soon to be published. And in return, please post a link to FCS from your web site.

What is FCS?
Favorite Chicago Sounds is the Chicago incarnation of an international project started by sound artist Peter Cusack in 1998.

The project works like this: we ask local residents to name their favorite sounds of the city. We then seek out those favorite sounds and make field recordings, which are available to the public as MP3s on our web site.

Please join us in developing this acoustic archive of the city. Fill out our survey or visit our catalog to contribute your own sounds. If we record your sound, we'll let you know, and you'll be able to listen to it or any of a growing number of Chicago's Favorite Sounds anytime you like.

Feel free to download, listen, and produce new work from our collection of recordings. The files are free to use. We only ask that you acknowledge us in your work. Please send us a copy of what you create–we'd love to post it on the site (with your permission) and show off your creativity!

FCS is a program of Experimental Sound Studio, a nonprofit sonic arts organization in Chicago.