Failure to consent

Aug 24, 2020, 01:59 PM

Hong Kong protest reimagined by John Downey.

"The Hong Kong protest field recording didn't so much inspire me to reimagine the sound as it caused me to reflect on the rise in authoritarianism and erosion of civil protections in democratic societies.  Protest movements that attempt to alter this trajectory, as we have plainly seen the central Chinese regime's violent responses, are mostly unsuccessful.  

"To me, the reverb and echo in the sound sample muddled the protesters chants, so I wanted to apply variations of granular synthesis that would emphasize these qualities, adding glitches and a faint cymbal to tense and confuse the mix.  I created granular instruments from the original sound in six out of eight tracks to maintain unity in tambre and tone while [attempting to] separate them in the stereo field.  I'm not well versed in mixing and need more practice. Compression may have drawn out some of the quieter sounds but I didn't use any here."