Before saying goodbye to the village of Fráguas, we still had time to record the sounds of a small herd of goats crossing the main street while their owner whistled and beat with his stick on the granite pavement.
Recorded bt Tiago Mota on May 20th, 2010 at 4.35 p.m. with an Edirol R-44 recorder and [...]

When the first group of field work ends their mission, we all decided to join the youths’ willingness to dive into the river with our intention to record a specific typology of summertime sounds, common in the Paiva river: the dives were accompanied by screams and laughs in which the innocence of a recently abandoned [...]

Already on the edge of Fráguas, we approached Ti Antonio who was harvesting hay on his field. In a speech marked by the years he asked the young woman who was recording if “it will then go on television?” and given a negative wave, he responded with a sincere and resigned “Oh shit!”.
Recorded by Vanessa [...]

Arriving in the fields of Fráguas, we found a group of people who was turning the water from irrigation canals to their fields, while in the distance an old man was harvesting hay. Also, on the recorded conversation a resident asks where another woman is, yelling from her field.
Recorded by Tatiana Magalhães on May 20th, [...]

Going down towards the fields of the village, following the course of irrigation water, we find a community laundry nearly ingrown in the granite, which water outflow was recorded, again with the sound of music in the background.
Recorded by Cidália Ferreira May 20th, 2010 at 3.22 p.m. with an Edirol R-44 recorder and a Tellinga [...]

After knowing more about the irrigation system in the village of Fráguas, we went in search of different sounds from that system. A little further along the main road we recorded the sound of water in an irrigation ditch, before it arrives in the fields below the village. What would be in principle a simple [...]

As we passed through the streets of Fráguas, we ended up listening to the conversation that Prof. João Lima was having with a group of people on various local issues. The description of the irrigation system and the rules to “turn” the water showed the ancestral importance the Paiva river for the riverside populations of [...]

A classic of the Aldeias Sonoras project is always the recording of the church bells of the villages we passed. Let us say that some churches and bell tones are more impressive than others. In the case of Fráguas, the ancestral and granitic beauty of the local church does not deserve the ordinary tone of [...]

A second exercise of recording sound with hydrophones, this time on a water channel made of granite that comes down from the road to the fulling mill on the Paiva River. Despite the powerful flow of water from this channel, hydrophones, being placed underwater, are able to capture smoother variations in the flow.
Recorded by Ilídio [...]

After we got to know Carapito in detail, moving slowly through its streets and alleys, we came to a high ground in the village, where threshing floors, granaries and barns dominate the landscape. Here we found a group of people, men and women, standing against a wall while catching the last sun of a cold [...]