13 - Clearing the Throat, Stumbling, and Coughing: An Anthropology of the Sonic Corpus according to Carlfriedrich Claus

Summary

I: Introduction

Vague Sounds, Insecure; Tentative. I can hear some squeaking, then cracking; sometimes I hear rumbling noises. It sounds as if I were carefully listening to a person who has not yet really decided what she or he or they wish to do now.

How this person acts sounds clueless, sometimes fuzzy. Sometimes, this person I can hear is moving much too quickly. But is it even a person? A bit later this person strange to me moves way too slowly. They are audibly breathing and idling, moving back and fro. Doubtful. Waiting. Biding their time.

I continue listening. The sounds are tender, brief, close to inaudible. Is this some thin stream of water running down? I need to listen. Is the performer just peeing now? Is it audiovoyeurism, is it my sheer surprise, or a strange, possibly perverted fascination with a clear streak of repulsion and being freaked out? The alien performer begins now to breathe in, continuously and very loud. They are breathing much harder, then more deeply, creating strange and uncomfortable noises made of mucus and air. Maybe it is cleaning his or her or their throat? Or is she or he starting to spit out or even vomit any second now? The sounds I hear are now clearly and intentionally disgusting; as if I were listening to some scaremongering, maybe alien performer who wishes to create the Foley sounds for some cheap but effective splatter horror movie. The monster is panting now, scarily—then it prepares to spit out in direction of its prey. Are we its prey, we, the listeners?

Then the repulsive performer of throat sounds turns silent, quite abruptly. One can hear them moaning and hissing; a faint hint of humming and vocalizing, briefly grunting and gargling. Again, I hear the continuous sound of some watery liquid. Even this liquid now sounds deeply uncomfortable to me: what body liquids are now leaking out, streaming out of this person?

The person moves about in its room. Further sounds can be heard, mostly of someone inconclusively moving around. A motorcycle drives by. Coughing. Then I hear more breathing, and even more guttural noises. I can actually even hear the tongue, the flesh inside this monster's mouth, the uvula palatina, moving and being moved by the harsh and panting stream of air. Is this stranger now trampling aggressively on the wooden floor of this room?