Walking La Fatarella 2020

Before Covid I had planned a return research visit to a site in Spain I had been listening and documenting changes in as a result of the increased presence of wind farms for over 10 years. At the end of July I finally made it to the Terra Alta Region having spent months in lockdown in the UK. In the intervening years since my last visit, the presence of wind turbines has grown exponentially, so much so that when a proposed increase was presented to the villages in the region, they all actively refused to allow more to be laid down on the space. The village, located in the centre of my research site, La Fatarella, had become its own bubble, protecting both the community as a whole and the elderly of the village. Within the centre of the village, which is located at the top of a mountain, we were surrounded by hundreds of turbines, stretching out into the horizon. I felt overwhelmed by the physical and acoustic presence of them. I spent two months listening to the small remaining acoustic cultural territory of the local community, its now very small festivals, the sounds of the twice weekly fresh markets, the youth festival in miniature, the holy festivals, where mask covered singers walked the streets, the soundscape of a protected and protecting culture.