Vacuum Cleaners

Certain sounds evoke memories of our childhood homes. By listening to them again, whether by chance or intentionally, we can magically be transported back to that time and place. For me, one sound that is forever engrained into my memory is that of an old vacuum cleaner. Vacuum Cleaners is my attempt at rediscovering the unique sound of the machine I remember from when I was a kid. To my imaginative, adolescent ears, it sounded like a rocket ship, a blimp and a race car. I couldn’t get enough of it.

Included are 35 machines: stick, canister, upright, robot, handheld, hand pump, industrial and central vacuum cleaners, plus antique and modern sweepers, a steam mop, carpet cleaner and shampoo polisher. To my ears, each motor’s unique voice sounds like something way beyond a simple vacuum cleaner. Vintage uprights howl and roar like rocket ships, classic space-age canister vacuums whine like futuristic hovercraft. There’s a central vacuum that can suck the life out of you and an antique pump vacuum that gives off eerie breath-like sounds.

I recorded some machines while sweeping back and forth in front of my microphones. For others, I captured them in place, in line with my belief that these motors sound more like rocket engines than vacuum cleaners. I created loops when a file allowed for it. To record a wooden Adler-Royal sweeper at an antique store, I asked the owner if I could walk around the store and sweep the aisles. She said yes, so I slung a Domke bag over my shoulder and gaffer taped a pair of contact mics to the sweeper. The result sounds like a muffled boulder going down a hill.

• • Sound Devices 702 and Sony PCM D100 recorders

• • Line Audio CM3 microphones in ORTF and XY, plus a pair of Barcus Berry contact mics