Simon James French

Hi, I'm Simon. I grew up in Suffolk, in England, spent years living across Asia, and for the last four years before moving here, my wife Chie and I lived on a narrowboat on Regent's Canal in London.

Before that, we ran a small coffee shop in Tokyo: Deakin St coffee stand. We lived above it. I still remember the sound of kids clattering up the metal stairs that separated our living space from the cafe below.

When we eventually left London, Kyoto was the obvious choice. We have a quality of life here that the UK stopped offering us for one reason or another, and a big group of friends, people building things for themselves.

I've been a sound artist and composer for nearly two decades, and I've spent years recording the sound of places: Tokyo, Seoul, the jungles of Borneo, shrines across Japan.

When I arrived in Kyoto, I noticed pretty quickly that most visitors were passing through it with their cameras out, trying to get the shot that everyone else already has.

The overtourism is what led me to start the sound walks. We move through the quieter neighbourhoods, away from the main tourist routes, using professional binaural microphones and field recorders. The technology acts as a magnifying glass: it pulls out sounds you'd otherwise walk straight past. The crunch of gravel under your feet. The ring of a temple bell. The particular silence of a temple garden in the early morning.

Each walk is two to three hours, with a maximum of four guests. Afterwards, I mix the sounds you recorded into an audio postcard, a short piece you can take home. People tell me they play them back months later and find themselves immediately standing in the place again.

I'm not a history lecturer and this isn't a guided tour in the traditional sense. It's closer to a few hours of paying attention together, with good equipment and someone who knows where to go.