Aural sunbeam (six records of gongs and singing)
I decided to reimagine the recording of “Six Records of Gongs and Singing”: six phonograph records of drums and singing. Originally recorded in 1914 on Atchin Island in Vanuatu, these recordings were made using wax cylinders by anthropologist John Willoughby Layard. Later, in the late 1930s, they were transferred to 78rpm records, and in 1979, they were transferred to reel-to-reel tape. In my ...
8m Feb 22
8m
Six records of gongs and singing
"Six Records of Gongs and Singing": six phonograph records of drums and singing from Vanuatu, originally recorded on wax cylinders by anthropologist John Layard, later transferred (here) to tape. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a number of miscellaneous or individual ethnographic field recordings (rediscovered during a recent research pr...
31m Feb 22
31m
Haldora Davidsen in conversation
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a number of miscellaneous individual recordings. Unknown recordist. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. Explore the full proje...
10m Feb 22
10m
Barrel organs
Barrel organs: recording of three English barrel organs in the Pitt Rivers Museum's collections, comprising songs played by Freddy Hill (restorer). From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a small number of recordings of the musical instruments in the institution's collections being played or discussed. Unknown recordist. Copyright Pitt Rivers ...
42m Feb 22
42m
Excerpts from expedition tapes
Excerpts from expedition tapes: recording of songs and the playing of musical instruments in the northern part of the Oriente of Ecuador made by members of the Oxford University Expedition to Ecuador in 1960. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a number of miscellaneous or individual ethnographic field recordings (rediscovered during a recen...
35m Feb 22
35m
Looking for spirits
The recording I started with came with a description, which included the following phrase: "youths [...] drum on trees as they pass through the forest, sometimes spirits may drum the tree during boyobé ceremonies." I was keen to both explore the rhythms and that sense of being joined by spirits - the ambiguity about who plays; as much in the lack of information about the actual individuals as ...
3m Feb 22
3m
Eulogy for Freddy Hill
As a starting point for this project, I did some research into the person who played the barrel organs on the recording. It transpired that Freddy Hill (born 1932 in Sussex, UK) was a very gifted man. The son of a headmaster and a clockmaker by profession, he also taught carpentry and music and was an expert restorer of antique musical instruments including the chamber barrel organs in this re...
5m Feb 22
5m
Antisana
This is about feeling that you don’t know enough to handle something properly. It’s built from samples of the opening horn blast, but what really interested me was the surrounding story: a group of explorers and botanists’ attempt to climb the active, glaciated volcano Antisana; they surveyed the forests up to the snowline, and the northern and western ice tongues, but were cut short when the s...
4m Feb 22
4m
The spectre of recorded time and place
This piece for the Century of Sound project began with a single field recording drawn from the archive of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. Rather than this recurring functioning as an objective document of place or event, I approached the recording as a temporal fracture, a sound that had already been severed from the moment that produced it. I was inspired by the thought that a recording is mad...
5m Feb 22
5m
Little train
From the moment that I first heard this sound, I thought the flute sounded very much like a little steam train. At first, I researched about Columbian trains and found there is a tourist train to the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá, an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine, 200 metres (660 ft) underground in a halite mountain near the city of Zipaquirá, in Cundin...
5m Feb 22
5m
Trumpets and horns
"Trumpets and horns": narration by musicologist Jeremy Montague about the contents of the trumpets display in the Pitt Rivers Museum, with examples of instruments being played. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a small number of recordings of the musical instruments in the institution's collections being played or discussed Unknown record...
30m Feb 22
30m
The horn sounds like this
"The horn sounds like this" originates from a December 1966 reel tape recording featuring musicologist Jeremy Montague demonstrating various horns. The 30-minute document represents a specific moment in museological practice: a scholarly voice explaining before sounding, contextualising before experiencing. Rather than preserving the integrity of this material, Francesco Ganassin and Sergio Ma...
4m Feb 22
4m
Project war drum
This piece began with the field recording: Bom war song and dance from Cameroon. I decided that rather than treating this recording as an objective document of place or cultural practice, I approached it as a temporal fracture in time, the past reanimated. I looked at the recording as a rhythm already severed from the moment that produced it, yet able to reengaged and affect the listener in 202...
5m Feb 22
5m
Homemade jam across time
When I first heard this field recording, I wanted to join in with the band on the beach. With every subsequent listen, I always find myself tapping or nodding along with the beat and wanting to dance. I decided to pursue this idea of jamming with the band across time, mixing in both my own high and low-tech approaches to creating sounds. The recording database and archival descriptions for this...
2m Feb 22
2m
Lost in this world
I spend a lot of time thinking about a project before I even begin to work. I wanted to create something that would feel odd and a bit disorienting to the listener. I got started and spent weeks reinterpreting the percussive music of the earth bow, a single-stringed musical instrument. Some ideas morphed from one place to another but then I got lost. So, I stopped and started again from scratch...
3m Feb 22
3m
Chocó panpipe music
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Chocó music and soundscapes made by students Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith in Colombia in 1965. Recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sou...
2m Feb 22
2m
Laarim elder recounts the history of his people
Loprimoi, a Laarim elder, recounts the history of his people, with the sound of blacksmiths working, hammering metal, nearby. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of cassette tape recordings of music and spoken language (principally Laarim) made by anthropologist Patti Langton in South Sudan during 1979 and 1980. Recorded by Patti...
13m Feb 22
13m
Bom war song and dance
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of songs and musical instruments made by journalist Lois Mitchison in Cameroon during 1958. Recorded by Sonja Lois Mitchison. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 yea...
2m Feb 22
2m
South Pacific "pop" music
South Pacific "pop" music recorded on the beach with full band, including guitar, tea chest bass and spoons. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Raymond Clausen mainly on the island of Malekula (Malampa Province) in Vanuatu between 1960 and 19...
6m Feb 22
6m
Ngbanda playing the ngbindi (earth bow)
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of cassette tape and digital audio tape recordings of Bayaka music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno mainly in the Central African Republic (and the Republic of Congo) between 1986 and 2009. Recorded by Louis Sarno. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ...
5m Feb 22
5m
Subsidence
The work is inspired by the island’s natural beauty and by the evening songs, chants, and slit drum ceremonies of the Indigenous People of Vanuatu. The slit drums were carved from extraordinarily large, hollowed-out trees, often standing two or three times the height of the performers. The original recording was made over half a century ago, before the islands felt the first signs of rising sea...
4m Feb 22
4m
Durei-na-mbwe song
Durei-na-mbwe song (late evening performance). From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Raymond Clausen mainly on the island of Malekula (Malampa Province) in Vanuatu between 1960 and 1979. Recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen. Copyright Pitt Rivers...
3m Feb 22
3m
Jungle rumble
Jungle Rumble is my musical interpretation of the awesome force and fragile stillness found within a storm passing over the tropical forests of the Republic of Congo. I was inspired by the immense power of the thunder as it rolls through dense canopies echoing against the towering trees and the living sounds of the jungle. In contrast to this raw energy, I was also moved by the moments of quie...
5m Feb 22
5m
Touraco (bird) and distant thunder
Forest sounds with touraco (bird) and distant thunder. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of cassette tape and digital audio tape recordings of Bayaka music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno mainly in the Central African Republic (and the Republic of Congo) between 1986 and 2009. Recorded by Louis Sarno...
6m Feb 22
6m
Dragonfly
Working on this project was very exciting for me for a number of reasons. Firstly, Oxford is my birthplace and my favourite museum is the Pitt Rivers Museum, so this was a particularly enticing opportunity. The thought of my music being archived there? Amazing! I was also excited to use my new knowledge of modular synthesis. A little risky, maybe, as I am quite new to it, but modular synthesis...
8m Feb 22
8m
Forest sounds with distant water drumming
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of cassette tape and digital audio tape recordings of Bayaka music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno mainly in the Central African Republic (and the Republic of Congo) between 1986 and 2009. Recorded by Louis Sarno. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ...
28s Feb 22
28s
Kemet
This was a haunting recording that warps and it sort of compliments the song that was being recorded at the time. I caught a psychedelic feel from the whole recording and first I chopped up the first few seconds and turned them into an amazing pad sample instrument which I've used in the second half, then continued to use the whole recording as a bed for the jazz instrumentation with the help o...
3m Feb 22
3m
Default of origin
This piece begins with a single recording: a forest soundscape captured by Louis Sarno in what is now the Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo, with birds, shifting air, and the distant rumble of a storm. The tape is not just a neutral document. It shows how sound can be taken, stored and studied. It is both a memory of a living environment and a product of the colonial era that c...
20m Feb 22
20m
Zande war song and chorus
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of wax cylinder recordings of Zande songs, dances and spoken language made by social anthropologist Edward Evans-Pritchard in South Sudan between 1928 and 1930. Recorded by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sou...
4m Feb 22
4m
Hummingbirds of the cloud forest
When I originally tried to work with this song, a dance of the U’wa people of the cloud forests of north-east Colombia, I kept hitting walls. It was the hardest track I have ever tried to create. I had a niggling feeling that this dance may be a sacred song to the U’wa, who are still singing and dancing their songs. I was aware I had no permission from the U’wa people to use or alter it. Sacred...
4m Feb 22
4m
After Mamadu
This piece was created in response to an archival field recording made by Louis Sarno among the Bayaka people of the Central African Republic. Instead of using the recording as musical material to be featured in the piece, I chose to use it as a generative constraint. I intended to have a single piece of audio from which the entire composition could be created. The original recording and its hi...
9m Feb 22
9m
U'wa Cobaria dance
U'wa Cobaria dance from the Andes in north-east Colombia. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel recordings of U'wa songs and stories made by anthropologist Ann Osborn in the Northern Andes (Sierra Nevada del Cocuy region) in Colombia between 1969 and 1977. Recorded by Ann Osborn. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, Unive...
4m Feb 22
4m
Forest sounds with bird calls and distant thunder
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of cassette tape and digital audio tape recordings of Bayaka music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno mainly in the Central African Republic (and the Republic of Congo) between 1986 and 2009. Recorded by Louis Sarno. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ...
8m Feb 22
8m
Floating waves on the Zambezi
 Imagine tuning a radio time-machine dial between the past and present of the Zambezi River valley; birds weave a tapestry in and out of the soundscape as static, magnetic drift, crosstalk and interference rise and fall with the signals in the atmosphere. The foundation of this mix, an original recording in the Pitt Rivers Museum collection, is a radio broadcast of singing and drumming by an un...
6m Feb 22
6m
Bari women chanting
While artist-in-residence at the Alice Boner Institute in Varanasi, India, I was lucky to hear chanting every day - nearly all day. The chanting is sacred - but it is also joyous. I wanted to capture that. Women singing reimagined by Paul Beaudoin. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the Unive...
4m Feb 22
4m
Bantu songs from Zambia
Bantu songs from Zambia: recording of a selection of Bantu songs and music, including drumming, issued by the Zambia Broadcasting Corporation. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a small number of recordings issued or released by foreign broadcasting corporations or radio associations. Recorded by Zambia Broadcasting Corporation. Copyright...
49m Feb 22
49m
Women singing
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel recordings of music and spoken language (principally Thulung Rai) made by anthropologist Nicholas Allen in Nepal and India between 1970 and 1981. Recorded by Nicholas Justin Allen. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, ...
3m Feb 22
3m
Along the Nile (Nuerland)
I came to this field recording by chance, yet I still remember the first time I listened to it, standing in my kitchen with headphones on, looking out the window. The second I pressed play, the singing moved me; it was abstract to me, yet full of movement, texture, and power. As I listened multiple times, different sounds and tones in the singing became noticeable. The sound felt alive and over...
6m Feb 22
6m
A centroid with Chocó
The development of this piece was particularly complicated for reasons I can’t fully explain. I tried various jumping off points, taking sections of the initial harmonica melody, and working on that with counter-melodies, call and response, writing on melodica and piano, working with voice, manipulating the original melodic phrasing, and nothing stuck for quite a while. Then I left the ideas a...
3m Feb 22
3m
Geedal (bow harp) in the forest with rain dripping
Mamadu playing the geedal (bow harp) in the forest with the sound of rain dripping. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of cassette tape and digital audio tape recordings of Bayaka music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno mainly in the Central African Republic (and the Republic of Congo) between 1986 and 2...
3m Feb 22
3m
An ode to a river, a parrot, a woman
What is the sound of a poetry work emerging from a fascinating, haunting, remote (for the poet) territory? A reverberation, a story, a journey within a journey, moving through spaces and beings. Awe and gratitude for merging voices temporally scattered. An original 55 second recording, an Indigenous woman calling to a parrot on the Purricha river, a diary, two students – Jonathan Ambache and R...
7m Feb 22
7m
Navel-Miel performance with rattle and seed pods
A Navel-Miel performance accompanied by shaken rattle and seed pods. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Raymond Clausen mainly on the island of Malekula (Malampa Province) in Vanuatu between 1960 and 1979. Recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen. ...
4m Feb 22
4m
Chocó mouth organ music
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Chocó music and soundscapes made by students Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith in Colombia in 1965. Recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sou...
3m Feb 22
3m
Chocó woman calling a parrot
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Chocó music and soundscapes made by students Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith in Colombia in 1965. Recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sou...
1m Feb 22
1m
Nuer people singing
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a number of miscellaneous or individual ethnographic field recordings (rediscovered during a recent research project). Unknown recordist. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the ...
10m Feb 22
10m
Azul - two worlds
Azul means “hello” in Berber. Azul – Two Worlds is inspired by Akassar, a traditional Berber song recorded in 1961 as part of the Oxford University Expedition to the Atlas Mountains, now preserved in the Pitt Rivers Museum archive. When I first heard the field recording, its melodies and rhythms unexpectedly resonated with elements of traditional Korean music, evoking both familiarity and wonde...
4m Feb 22
4m
An endless vibration
When I listened to the recording, I went back to sit with my mother in nature in the village. The rhythm was beating her favourite song (Rewşenê) alongside '"Tu Paine", and it was reciting memories that will not be remembered unless passing through a genocide. It is inspiring how 14,000 kilometres of distance can vibrate the same feelings that I had in my childhood. It is interesting how a soun...
4m Feb 22
4m
The colonisation of language: a phraseology in five parts
The Colonisation of Language: A Phraseology in Five Parts explores, in a broad sense, aspects of oral storytelling and how the influence of colonisation can corrupt language and the sense of an origin story through multiple iterations over time. In much of my sound work, I’m drawn to the spoken word, and was immediately drawn to the characteristics within the vocal utterances contained in the ...
9m Feb 22
9m
Akassar (song) with violin and drum
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Berber (Ait Haddidu) music and soundscapes made by members of the Oxford University Expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Southern Morocco in 1961. Recorded by Audrey Butt, Michael R. Emerson or Ralph Hudson Johnson. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of ...
4m Feb 22
4m
Tu Paine: song for guitar
"Tu Paine": song for guitar performed by Robert and Paul. From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a large collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of music and soundscapes made by ethnomusicologist Raymond Clausen mainly on the island of Malekula (Malampa Province) in Vanuatu between 1960 and 1979. Recorded by Raymond Ernst Clausen. Copyright ...
3m Feb 22
3m