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# Walk the Eight Blocks from the Met to the Met Breuer, Accompanied by Soundscapes
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/walk-the-eight-blocks-from-the-met-to-the-met-breuer-accompanied-by-soundscapes/
- Published: 2016-03-02T21:02:27.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:58:37.000Z
- Description: John Luther Adams's "Soundwalk 9:09" is a composition that's only complete once you listen to it on the noisy New York City streets.
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: Art, John Luther Adams, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Review, sound, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:17 (2016, 2017, part 1)

![Soundwalk 9:09](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/02/soundwalkmet01.jpg)

Beginning John Luther Adams’ “Soundwalk 9:09” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

[John Luther Adams’s](http://johnlutheradams.net/?ref=hyperallergic.com) “[Soundwalk 9:09](http://metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/soundwalk?ref=hyperallergic.com)” is a composition that’s only complete once you listen to it on the noisy New York City streets. The piece is available [for free download](http://metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/soundwalk?ref=hyperallergic.com) and streaming this week from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in anticipation of the opening of their Met Breuer branch [on March 18.](http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/met-breuer?ref=hyperallergic.com) It’s intended as a sonic bridge between the two buildings.

![Soundwalk 9:09](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/02/soundwalkmet04.jpg)

Arriving at the Met Breuer (click to enlarge)

“Soundwalk 9:09” references the amount of time it took Adams to stroll the eight blocks from the main branch of the Met to its new space in the Marcel Breuer-designed former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art. It has two parts, “Uptown,” and “Downtown,” for both walking directions. [Crowdsourcing](http://www.cnet.com/news/nycs-met-museum-seeks-crowdsourced-sounds/?ref=hyperallergic.com) sound samples from those Upper East Side streets, Adams built a layered landscape of droning, ethereal tones, a cocoon of noise from which voices, sirens, horns, jackhammers, a burst of trumpet, and birds emerge. The idea is that, as you walk, you can’t tell what’s coming from your headphones and what’s coming from the real-time action around you, encouraging a closer listen to both.

Adams wrote in [his note to the listener](http://metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/soundwalk?ref=hyperallergic.com):

> The ideal listening balance between the “live” and recorded sounds is one in which you aren’t always certain whether a sound you’re hearing is coming from your ear buds, your imagination, or from the streets around you.

I tried out both sections this past weekend, starting at the main branch and walking south along Central Park. Passing by the entrance steps, the jingle of a dog’s collar mingled with the rhythmic claps of a performer singing an a cappella “Lean on Me.” A group of girls on scooters rolled by, and when I entered the tree arcade by the park, a swell of sound seemed to respond, with a distant singing of birds. I might be a slower walker than Adams, as I didn’t quite make it there by nine minutes. Once at the Breuer building’s stern modernist castle façade, I listened to the “Downtown” section as I walked up Madison Avenue. It was much less eventful, mainly with traffic churning by and the occasional conversation overheard at the corners.

![Soundwalk 9:09](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/02/soundwalkmet02.jpg)

Walking by the art stands outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art

![Soundwalk 9:09](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/02/soundwalkmet03.jpg)

Passing through the tree arcade by Central Park

Adams, who recently moved from Alaska [to Harlem](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/nyregion/how-john-luther-adams-composer-spends-his-sunday.html?ref=hyperallergic.com), has mostly been inspired by the great expanses of the Northwest, orchestrating huge panoramas of sound. His [*Become Ocean*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Become%5FOcean?ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* which received the 2014 Pulitzer for Music, involved contrasting patterns in considering the melting of the polar ice and the majesty of the Arctic waters. Alex Ross at the [*New Yorker*](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/08/water-music-3?ref=hyperallergic.com)noted that the composition had a palindrome shape, writing that anyone “who has gone down a stretch of road and then reversed course knows that a landscape does not look the same when viewed from opposite directions.”

“Soundwalk 9:09” has a similar design, reversing course with its own flow of sound, this time inspired by the human-made instead of nature. The listening experience won’t be for everyone, as its polyphonic aesthetic doesn’t offer any rhythmic or melody support for all that noise. Yet I found myself listening intently for noises I would usually tune out, appreciating the airy brakes of a bus, or the metronome-like pound of a hot dog vendor’s serving tongs on a metal surface. Would simply tuning in to New York City’s distinct chaos of noise without headphones have similar rewards? Definitely. “Soundwalk 9:09” is intended to sharpen those senses, and make a simple walk between two buildings an exploration into urban sound.

![Soundwalk 9:09](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/02/soundwalkmet05.jpg)

Walking up Madison Avenue

*Download and listen to John Luther Adams’ “*[*Soundwalk 9:09*](http://metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/soundwalk?ref=hyperallergic.com)*” online at the* [*Metropolitan Museum of Art*](http://metmuseum.org/events/programs/met-live-arts/soundwalk?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*