Village train station Döttingen:

The train station is particular step in my daily journey to ETH as it is often the final place where i finally decide to put in my earbuds and isolate myself from the sensory overload of an amalgamation of irritating sound. It is a place where the soundscape changes vastly depending on the time of day, as in the early morning it is mostly quiet and you can even listen to the birds chirping, as the clock ticks to eight the place attracts the more conversation happy people and you start noticing the heavy traffic in the background at midday you experience a mix of both quietness and rumble of people talking, however the constant return in the evening at night, as you can almost always garuantee that you will find the unemployed huddled up at the train station kiosk talking loudly smoking weed and drinking beer while often playing loud music from their portable speakers. the funny thing is that the most catchy sounds and overheard sounds exchange roles depending on the time of day, as in the moring the cue to put in my earbuds is the sound of the approaching train which reverbrates around the corner through the train tracks, while you tend to overhear the few conversations in the morning dew. In the evening these roles change as the unemployed have mastered the art of being hard to ignore rather shouting at each other than talking, generating such a constant rumble that you cannot rely on acoustic cues anymore to notify you of the train approaching.

Hydroelectric power plant Beznau:

An almost daily ritual of mine is an evening walk through the forest along the river with my mother after dinner, where the foliage absorbs almost everything and you can clearly notice the isolated chirping of birds. at the midpoint of the journey where you reach the end of the way you can walk along the river because you have reached the powerplant is a constant rumble of the hydroelectric plant generators. you can hear that you have neared the midway point as you are passing holes on the riverside foliage which enable the constant rumble to propagate itself into the pathway. The origin of the sound cannot be pinpointed without the visual clue of the plant, however the sound only catches your attention and disturbs you when first notice it, the more you come along the way and the rumble surrounds you, you become accustomed to it so much so, that it appears to you as if it were not there.