Sounds of Innsbruck

English filmmaker Ashley Wiggins - whose exemplary work you can see examples of on this website - has been an Innsbruck resident since 2013. Ashley now lives in the St Nikolaus district, close to a church; ‘The Bells, man! Every quarter of an hour, 24/7. And Sunday mornings! But, it is what it is. To be honest, I’ve got used to it now - it’s the sound of the city’. Not that he’s at home all that much these days - the filming work has taken him to eight different countries on three different continents this year. But music also still plays a big part in his life.

Under the alias Clifford Randall, the name of his late Grandfather, Ashley has been a DJ and music producer for years. ‘My background is electronic music and I’ve had so much inspiration from different music here. In the Bögen (the railway arches that stretch for around a mile close to the centre of the city) you’ve got clubs where you’ll hear techno, house, hip hop, drum n bass…so much choice. In my first few years here I would DJ all these different genres, especially when I didn’t have as much filming work’.

Capturing the Sounds of Innsbruck

Clifford Randall has just returned to action with a unique release. Described as ‘a love letter to the city’, ’Sounds of Innsbruck’ is available digitally and as a rare collector’s item: a limited edition vinyl postcard, ‘a format as distinctive as the sounds within’, as the press release states.

Making use of dozens of samples that took years to collect, from mountain peaks to out-of-the-way corners of the city streets, Ashley then carefully wove these organic sounds into the music. The result? A bass-driven house track that serves as a sonic portrait of Innsbruck - a place where the soul of the mountains meets the heart of the city.

I recently spoke to him to find out more.

How did the track come about?

Ashley Wiggins: ‘I was doing so much filming in different cities but especially in Innsbruck. And I noticed every city has unique sounds. Here, you've got the water, you've got the trams, the sirens every Saturday at 12 o'clock, the planes, the Bögen; the sound of trains overhead. Five years ago I started thinking it would be cool to put all of these sounds into a track. So I collected loads of sounds and put them into a folder. Then, as my filming business started to get busier, it got pushed aside because I didn’t have time. But I was always collecting sounds. I must have collected thousands. There was a moment where I thought, ‘right, I need to do something with this!’, so I played around with different ideas for the track. At first I wasn’t sure what genre it would be but, for me, house music is really the one. ‘Sounds of Innsbruck’ is a mix of house and hip hop - thats how I feel about Innsbruck and its night scene.’

Tell me about the main refrain

AW: ‘I found this soul sample - the voice; ‘take me higher’. I found it on a sample pack so it’s all cleared. That line really resonated with me because moving to Innsbruck took me higher in life, it took me higher in business…and you can literally go higher if you go up into the mountains! So that was always going to be the main part. Then I wrote the bassline and the guitar riff and put the beat together. So then it was like, what can I do with these samples?'

How many samples did you use?

AW: ‘There’s around a sixty to seventy samples on the track; trams, busses, trains, planes, traffic lights, birds up on the Nordkette, ski lifts, skiing, bikes, gilders from when I filmed some gliding up on the Nordkette, the ski jump and then just ambient stuff; the river, different parts of the city. I recorded outside the golden roof. Just took that sound. In the old town there is so much going on in such a small space. Even after twelve years, I still feel like a tourist here. And the sounds are taken throughout all the seasons.

A lot of them were recorded when I was filming for Innsbruck Tourism, such as the skiing sounds. There’s a sound from the new Patscherkofelbahn, I used that as a snare. I was using the sirens, the whooshing of the ski jump at the Bergisel…that made a good crescendo'.

Tell me more about the postcard pressing and the artwork

AW: ‘I took the picture with a 360 degree camera, from the Martktplatz (market square). When you put it on, the city is spinning. On the track, if you listen carefully, you can hear a child laughing and father talking to him. It’s taking a moment to record that time, that place in the city. And that’s what a postcard is really. That’s the moment in time, stamped. And you can actually send it to someone! I just sent one to my friend in Australia in fact'.

The Sounds of Innsbruck postcard is available from the excellent Nabu Records, Innstrasse 43, close to the city centre. 

Find out more about vinyl postcards here.

Clifford Randall is performing as part of the Nordkette Bergsilvester December 31st 2025.

All photos: Leon Barton