Norman W. Long writes "soundscapes define our sense of community. Each track exposes a complex matrix of networks that exist within the Lake Calumet region of the South Side of Chicago — specifically the South Deering community area’s “Big Marsh” and Van Vlissingen Prairie reserves — to focus our attention on a landscape’s diversity, restoration, and resilience.

South Deering is a predominately Black and Latin neighborhood. It is also the site of the first steel mill in the Calumet region (Wisconsin Steel Works, formerly the Joseph H. Brown Iron and Steel Company), which operated from 1875-1980. Since the closing of the plant, the neighborhood has gone through an economic depression.

1. Big Marsh (After Burn)

 (20:06)

“Big Marsh” is a brownfield-marsh area that is in the process of ecological restoration. Big Marsh (After Burn) sonically explores the site’s industrial remnants and its recovering biophony, after it underwent a controlled burn. Analog synths weave in and out of a field recording of the soundscape, sometimes tying the industrial soundscape and recovering soundscapes together, and sometimes acting as an element in and of itself.

2. Van Vlissingen Prairie (After Burn) (07:06)

3. Van Vlissingen Prairie (Summer) (11:16)

Van Vlissingen Prairie is in the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood of the South Deering Community. Through investigating the Van Vlissingen Prairie reserve at two different points in time, Van Vlissingen Prairie (After Burn) and Van Vlissingen Prairie (Summer) explore the incremental change of a soundscape as the site is restored by the Chicago Park District—via soil remediation, removal of invasive plant species, and introduction of native species. The two audio recordings are both sourced from contact microphones placed within the scorched earth, field recordings on location, and analog synthesizers that weave in and out of post-industrial noise—coming from the adjacent rail yard, local residences, and the local ecology of birds and singing insects. [These two tracks were originally conceived as a soundtrack for a single-channel video installation.]