Des Coulam has been recording sound for over fifty years. He recorded sound professionally but then moved into the world of business and, from 1994, into the all-consuming world of international business. For the last fifteen years he has lived in Paris – the place that he now calls home. Over the last few years, he has wound down his business interests and returned to his first love - recording sound. He now devotes his time to recording and archiving the contemporary sounds of Paris – capturing the sound tapestry of the city more comprehensively than it’s been done before.

I record sounds - but very particular sounds – the sounds of Paris. I am a flaneur, endlessly walking the streets of Paris, observing through active listening and, in the words of Robert Doisneau, one of the great twentieth-century Parisian street photographers, capturing “that gratuitous, never-ending show for which no ticket is needed.” And it is from the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Parisian street photographers that I take my inspiration to do the work that I do. About five years ago, I decided to embark upon recording and archiving the contemporary sounds of Paris – to capture the sound tapestry of the city in, as far as I know, a more comprehensive way than it’s been done before.