Kinnaur calling
Created in collaboration with Kinnauri filmmaker Himanshu Negi Regesoi, this piece is a meeting of old and new, bringing a sonic archive to life from the Western Himalayas. From the Pitt Rivers Museum's sound collection, a field recording of women singing in the early 1980s (recorded in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India by anthropologist Nicholas Allen) now becomes a portal for a young Indigeno...
9m Feb 22
9m
Metimbo playing the bubulu (pot 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. ...
2m Feb 22
2m
Bayang song
This was one of the more difficult pieces I’ve worked on, although it was enjoyable working through the process. I struggled quite a bit at the beginning, as the field recording has both harmonic & rhythmic structure which varies in tempo quite a bit… so I wasn’t sure how to approach this initially. After some thought and a fair bit of trial and error, I decided to pick up my guitar (and play ...
3m Feb 22
3m
Sea level rise
I ended up listening to this recording a lot in my everyday life, just putting it on and going to work, walking around the city I live in, in idle moments between work. I didn’t know an awful lot about Vanuatu, where the recordings were taken by Raymond Clausen in 1962. Having read the Pitt Rivers blog, I thought a lot about how people and societies move on and are changed, sometimes forcibly,...
4m Feb 22
4m
All people are people
My chosen sound was a sample of a geedal (bow harp) being played in the forest with accompanying male voices, recorded in Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve. by ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno in 1987. I was drawn to the sample on account of its musicality, not just in terms of the music and vocals, but the lilting patter of conversation and laughter that resonates in these conversational intervals, c...
3m Feb 22
3m
Bayang men's songs
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...
3m Feb 22
3m
Geedal (bow harp) played in the forest
Geedal (bow harp) played in the forest with male voices accompanying. 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...
6m Feb 22
6m
Drumming at Wor Tamat dancing ground
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 Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the ...
2m Feb 22
2m
To see and remember
"To See and Remember" is a composition incorporating elements from a 1965 expedition field recording from the Chocó Department, in Colombia, by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith, who were then fellow students at the University of Cambridge. The recording that I selected, made on 5-inch reel tape, captures the sounds of the local Emberá people playing music with flute, drums and other ...
5m Feb 22
5m
Bhoot
I originally chose the field recording simply because I enjoyed the melody. The women sang the same melodic phrase over and over with slight changes. I felt like they were telling a story but, as I don’t speak the language, I had to look elsewhere for inspiration. I researched the mythology and folklore of Himachal Pradesh’s remote valleys and discovered a common ghostly tale. If you are out w...
5m Feb 22
5m
The forest of spirit
I listened to the first 20 seconds of the track, heard the hummed murmur of a Ba'aka voice and thought, "I can work with that." It wasn’t until the next day that I heard the engaging, immersive, gently rocking polyphony that the murmur develops into. I learned that the Ba'aka musical style is over 30,000 years old, older than any continuous musical heritage. UNESCO describes Ba'aka music as a "...
3m Feb 22
3m
Bayaka voices in the forest at dawn
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
Chocó flute and drum music with rattle
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...
5m Feb 22
5m
Women singing with flute
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, ...
10m Feb 22
10m
The weave of a song
The field recording I chose is of a gentleman named Thomas Penniman performing an early 20th-century work song about weaving from the Gower Peninsula. It's a strange, compelling and mysterious recording, made in the winter of 1974. There's a repeated refrain, "Mrs Tanner has six sons/And they all sang like thrushes as they worked at the loom", which I loved. But then the song becomes quite angr...
5m Feb 22
5m
Stone sound
The original field recording was fed into a granular sculpting sampler to create bell like arpeggiated lines. Next, I chopped the field recording to extract key parts, intimate vocal moments, a solid stone hit rhythm and laughter. Isolated stone “hits” became drum parts, replayed and resampled then slowed. They began to sound like ghost drums, closing doors or belated fireworks. I recreated th...
7m Feb 22
7m
Silenced soil
Silenced Soil begins with a fragile artefact: a recording of Claude Debussy’s Sarabande, composed in 1894 and revised in 1901, then recorded on 11 April 1963 in Gillitts, KwaZulu-Natal, by ethnomusicologist Raymond Clausen. Its only documentation is a handwritten note on a reel-to-reel tape box: “at Gillitt’s, copy of Debussy, Sarabande.” No pianist, no studio, no context. The archive offers li...
3m Feb 22
3m
Weaving song from the Gower Peninsula
Weaving song from the Gower Peninsula of South Wales, recited by Thomas Penniman, former Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum, who was preparing a manuscript on 'Work and Song in the North-west Gower' in his retirement ("Mrs. Tanner had six sons, and they all sang like thrushes while they worked at the loom"). From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one o...
6m Feb 22
6m
Women and grinding stones
Women singing and using grinding stones for musical accompaniment. 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 Langton. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxfo...
1m Feb 22
1m
Piano being played
"Piano being played": recording of the second movement ('Sarabande') of solo piano suite 'Pour le piano' (L.95) by French composer Claude Debussy, performed by an unnamed pianist. 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 in V...
6m Feb 22
6m
Distant
This piece is built around a short fragment of an Igbo wind instrument recording taken from the Pitt Rivers Museum sound collections. The original recording was made on wax cylinder by anthropologist Northcote Thomas in Nigeria between 1909 and 1915. Knowing the material fragility of the recording, and the historical distance it represents, strongly shaped how I approached the composition. Rat...
3m Feb 22
3m
Igbo wind instrument
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of wax cylinder recordings of songs and spoken language made by anthropologist Northcote Thomas in Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915. Recorded by Northcote Whitridge Thomas. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimaginin...
2m Feb 22
2m
My rubber dinghy
The inspiration for this piece was the current climate and attitudes from a section of the population towards immigration. It is unsettling to see the resurgence en masse of sentiments I thought were well behind us. I used a fragment of a field recording from the Bamam tribe of Cameroon, and used it as an intro for my piece, which I divided into three movements. a) Mar Germanicus It uses an Ar...
8m Feb 22
8m
Bamum zither player
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...
6m Feb 22
6m
YAZ
YAZ is a vocal and electroacoustic composition built from a field recording of an Aït Haddidou market in Rabat, captured in 1961. What struck me immediately was the presence of a young boy’s voice, cutting through the density of the market: a call. Not directed at anyone in particular, yet lingering. That voice became the starting point of the piece, an echo moving through time and memory. Res...
6m Feb 22
6m
Market sounds, Morocco
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 ...
2m Feb 22
2m
Men singing, with percussion and violin
From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of cassette tape recordings of songs and instruments made by playwright David Mowat across several different states in India during 1987. Recorded by David Mowat. Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 10...
6m Feb 22
6m
Airwaves unfolded
Airwaves Unfolded is a piece based on a radio recording produced in the 1960s in Tarija, southern Bolivia, by Radio Universidad de Tarija. The program introduces Indigenous instruments and discusses how they have been intertwined with labour, daily life, and ritual, as well as how new instruments and musical forms developed after Spanish influence. What drew me to this recording were the instr...
5m Feb 22
5m
Bolivian radio programme on folk music
"Bolivian radio programme on folk music": a recording of folk music from southern Bolivia issued by Radio Universidad de Tarija, with commentary (in Spanish). 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 Radio Universidad de Tarija...
16m Feb 22
16m
Flutes in the forest at night
Momboli and Gongé playing flutes in the forest at night. 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 Sar...
4m Feb 22
4m
Rooted
The field recording from India immediately revealed itself to me as a form of male ritual music, rooted in repetition, gesture, and collective memory. From that first encounter, the piece began to take shape as an inner journey: a passage through listening, silence, and transformation. The opening unfolds in a dreamlike, immersive space, imagined as a temple. Here, sound becomes a threshold. T...
9m Feb 22
9m
A sound that no longer exists
 I was delighted to work with the recording of Aka masters Momboli and Gongé, playing flutes in the forest at night, recorded by Louis Sarno in the 1990s. I decided to retain the essence of the sounds of the forest camp at night, including the community of women, men, and children, as well as the wild shouts that are often parts of these moments.  For many years, I have wished to visit the Con...
6m Feb 22
6m
It looks like you're trying
The source material that I worked with was a field recording from the 60s in which someone in Morocco is singing a song, begging for bread. When I first listened to the recording, it immediately brought back a very specific memory from an old workplace of mine – an energy company had made a typographical error on their website, and when their customers struggling with energy debts called the ph...
2m Feb 22
2m
Durei-na-mbwe 2.0
“Durei-na-mbwe 2.0” plays with notions of time, decay and transformation; with it, I wanted to capture the embodied experience of me listening to and imagining the original recording through a contemporary lens. I listened to the original Durei-na-mbwe by the Broken Consort (1961) on repeat for about three weeks before I started to work with it; the haunting melody of the vocals and panpipes be...
7m Feb 22
7m
Voices through wires
The archival field recordings of Bayaka hunters captured by Louis Sarno were the starting point of this work, not only for their sonic richness, but for their ability to convey life and presence across time. The voices, full of rhythm, laughter, and communal energy, immediately suggested the potential to create a composition that honours their vitality while exploring cross-boundary cultures an...
4m Feb 22
4m
Ait Haddidu beggar singing for bread
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 ...
2m Feb 22
2m
Durei-na-mbwe (song) by the Broken Consort
Durei-na-mbwe (song) by the Broken Consort, with Samuel on bu-wahr-wahr (panpipes), accompanied by Dominique, Erine, Ferdinand and Marineau. 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...
3m Feb 22
3m
Out in the forest with Bayaka hunters
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. —...
3m Feb 22
3m
Man singing with percussion
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, ...
7m Feb 22
7m
Man playing bināyā (jew's harp)
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
Chocó flute and drum music with rattle
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
Dancing echoes
Inspiration came from both the sound recording itself, and my impressions of the Pitt Rivers Museum. I was struck by the many objects and collections of musical instruments in the museum – giving me the phrases "surrounded by..." and "all around us..." As a wind player I was interested in all the different objects that could be blown through including some very simple pipes with one or two hole...
4m Feb 22
4m
Edge of the mountain
For this project I challenged myself to create every sound directly from the original recording. Drum hits, textures, bass and even a cowboy guitar were all manipulated extracts from the sample. The recording contains vocal interjections which I reused as percussive elements. The jaw harp has a rich timbre and a compelling rhythmic drive, but it often required careful processing to soften hars...
3m Feb 22
3m
Echoes from the roof
The production process centred on preserving the integrity of the original field recording from Lokhim, Nepal, while building a modern arrangement around it. Spectral Layers was utilised to isolate the vocal line from the background noise and original percussion, allowing the singer’s performance to remain the focal point without destructive editing. Once isolated, Melodyne and a custom built M...
7m Feb 22
7m
Two mornings (21,915 days and 8,480 km apart)
A reflection on distance, time and listening. Morning sounds captured on reel-to-reel tape in Chocó, Colombia in 1965 meet digital recordings made sixty years later in Forest Gate, East London. Morning soundscape among the Chocó people reimagined by Asher Levitas. ——— Part of the project A Century of Sounds, reimagining 100 sounds covering 100 years from the collections of the Pitt Rivers Mu...
4m Feb 22
4m
Andean music including flute and drum
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 ...
59m Feb 22
59m
Noriya/port-cruinn
Noriya is a men’s generational song celebrating and praising Ngitamo, the guinea fowl. The original recording of the Larim people in South Sudan in 1979 was from a time of relative peace, with the Ngitamo generation existing alongside the Nyoletiang (gazelles) and Nyitulabok (sheep). The melody, compound rhythm and tempo reflect this balance and resonate as song of celebration and joy, even one...
5m Feb 22
5m
Men's generation song from South Sudan
"Noriya": a men's generation song from South Sudan ("Praise the guinea fowl Nyitamo/ He's always hard-working"). 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 Langton. Co...
5m Feb 22
5m
When the mountains sing
The recording I chose is over 50 minutes of cassette tape recordings from the 1970s, capturing interviews and recordings of live music performed by communities living in the Andes in Peru. For the Indigenous communities of Peru, the Andes are living, sacred beings that sustain and protect life and they call the Mountain Spirits Apus. These powerful spirits of the Andes watch over communities a...
9m Feb 22
9m
Morning soundscape among the Chocó people
Cockerel crowing: morning soundscape among the Chocó people of north-west Colombia. 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. Copyrigh...
1m Feb 22
1m