How does the world resonate in cafes? In Cairo, the café is an institution open to the city: even the cries of street vendors enter it; in Paris the sounds of plates, forks, cups, good mornings, good evenings, are repeated on a loop like in a play, while in the small boui-boui by the roadside in Vientiane, the din of motorbikes is intertwined random voices. From Egypt, via France and as far as Laos, a short sound tour of the bistros of the world.
Listen to the world is a radio program replaying in podcast here, but also a participatory sound platform dedicated to listening. It archives and provides free access to more than 200 sound recordings sent from all over the world, to be found on The sound map.
This episode was produced with sound contributions from: Vincent Battesti in Cairo, Monica Fantini in Paris, Igor Strauss in Vientiane.
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Production team
Design, writing, editing, mixing: Monica Fantini
Voice recording and mixing assistance: Laurence Allanic and Pascal Boungo – Creation Unit