A travelogue on sound, music and inevitable associations
Some places appeal deeply to the imagination. Even if the spot isn’t a big deal in itself. It’s about how it relates to other locations or the terrain surrounding it, its history or simply just its mere remoteness. The latter at least from the traveler’s point of view. All these features apply to Murghab, which […]
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Crossing the Turkish-Georgian border near Batumi feels like entering a forgotten part of Europe. Or better yet, one that we vaguely knew. Paradoxically, the contrast between modern Turkey, which feels pretty European, and Adjara, this autonomous republic in the southwestern part of Georgia, is rather big. Turkey is well organized, Georgia feels more chaotic. Where […]
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It’s just one village in a row of many, as one passes through this charming valley full of hazelnut orchards. A dead end no one would ever visit, save for some special reason. After a few kilometres we have to stop at a police checkpoint. A friendly officer asks for our passports and checks them […]
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We find ourselves between lovely meadows crowded with cows in the lowlands near Chobi in Georgia. Preparing for sunset, dozens of frogs croak at their loudest. I wonder if the difference between their bass or treble sounds corresponds linearly to the size of their body, as is more or less the case with acoustic musical […]
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Loaded with lasting memories of Armenia, we’re back in Georgia. After refueling and buying supplies, we leave Rustavi on our way to the David Gareji monastery located along the Azerbaijani border. While night is falling, we park along the dirt track, assuming that not much traffic will pass through here. As so often happens, what […]
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We just crossed the border from Azerbaijan into Dagestan, the most southern and one of the most infamous autonomous Russian republics. Together with Ossetia, Chechnya and a bunch of even more tiny, would-be independent states in its neighborhood, hopefully Dagestan won’t live up to its reputation of ethnic instability, terrorist attacks or kidnapping while we […]
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What’s the quintessential sound of Kazakhstan? Trains! Like distant howling caterpillars, Kazakh trains bravely tackle enormous distances throughout this sparsely inhabited country. Trains transporting people, of course, but more importantly oil and gas for thirsty cars and trucks. Soon after passing the Russia-Kazakhstan border at Kotyaevka, trains will cross your path, mostly at a serious […]
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Is a trip along the Silk Road in a Euro VI expedition vehicle somewhat like organizing one’s own Icarus Flight? Some mountain ranges – like the Caucasus and the Pamirs – are very high, bearing the possibility of falling deeply. The former literally, due to its steep slopes and gaping valleys. The latter metaphorically, because […]
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During my 2019 Silk Road expedition, I started suffering from a strange and unexpected addiction. Traffic lights. Traffic lights can be quite annoying, especially on roads you don’t know well. It’s not the principle of traffic lights that disturbs, it’s rather the difficulty in predicting their behaviour. Every motorist will recognize the sometimes unnerving put-in-first-gear-and-put-in-idle-again […]
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The oldest prevailing sound on earth must have been the sound of water. No dripping tap, but the roar of a vast and mighty ocean and the scourging rains that fed it. We tried to imagine its sound while crossing the endless Ustyurt Plateau, along the desolate border area between Beyneu in Kazakhstan and Nukus […]
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