Favorite Chicago Sounds

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

Exquisite City

January 15 - March 15, 2009
Artist reception - January 30, 6-8pm
Chicago Tourism Center, 72 E. Randolph St.

FCS provides the ambient soundtrack for The Exquisite City, City of Cardboard, a miniature cityscape on display at the Chicago Tourism Center.

View photos and learn more!

Field Recordings for Five-Year-Olds

A sound sculpture created by FCS founder Jesse Seay is now on permanant display at the Chicago Children's Museum. Designed for the Museum's youngest visitors, it evokes memories of the old-fashioned tin-can-telephone.

View photos and learn more

Train Time

FCS recordings of trains were featured in the sound installation Train Time as part of the 2008 Chicago Humanities Festival and Outer Ear Festival.

Learn more!

Sound Mapping

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

Listen
Listen to a jukebox mix of Chicago sounds!
Explore our MP3 catalog!

(What is FCS?)
It works like this: we ask local residents to name their favorite sounds of the city. We then seek out those 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. It is part of an international project started by sound artist Peter Cusack in 1998.