San Martín Railway at night in Vedia, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina in November 2024 – by Joaquín Conde

Field Recordings

“My father and I got into the car and hurried to the railroad crossing, willing to get there in time to record: just minutes earlier we heard the distant sound of a train about to leave town. We got there seconds before the locomotive rushed past us saturating the microphone. The freight cars picked up speed as they pulled away from the station but everything went silent at the peak of this crescendo. Only echoes remained, the ghost of a train heading west and the night gradually reclaiming its habitual sounds.

This recording is a statement of principles advocating for the preservation and improvement of my country’s state-run railway system, amid efforts by the national government to dismantle it.”