An improvised football field in Traian Square in Timișoara serves as the backdrop for a neighborhood portrait. The friendly tournament organized by the Casa Jacob Toffler Association in the Fabric neighborhood has, for several years in a row, brought together locals and people from other parts of the city — neighbors, artists, young and old, Nepalese immigrants, a manele singer — for a few days in the fall. Football is just the excuse. The real stake is the visibility of a community under the pressure of gentrification, in a neighborhood where craft beer bars are beginning to replace corner stores, and luxury apartments are gradually pushing to the margins the people who were born and raised there.

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Paul Breazu is a journalist and cultural worker. He is involved in projects exploring the archaeology of Romanian pop music (Batiscaf Radio, Discotecă, Arhiva de Sunet), the social and cultural history of marginalized communities and groups (PARADAIZ), and the production of experimental events (CUCA, MetaOrganum, FAUNA), and in coordinating the pop journalism magazine TLTXT.ro; he also writes a bimonthly column dedicated to music in the publication Dilema.

Script, composition, recordings, and editing by Paul Breazu for SEMI SILENT in the frame of SONIC SPORTSCast: Laura Borotea, Ms. Nuți, the ladies from Piața Traian, Gabriel Boldiș, Florin Iepan, lookie-loos, public, football players
Additional mixing and mastering: Mihai Balabaș
Thanks: Asociația Casa Jakab Tofler, Arhiva de Sunet, Minitremu, Florian from Prințul Turcesc, Sillyconductor, Anamaria Pravicencu, Adrian Deoancă

Illustration: Eleni Dafini Bacula