Ptolomea

Nov 13, 2020, 02:59 PM

Ptolomea created by Peggy Nelson.

"Ptolomea is the Third Zone of the Ninth Circle of Hell; those there entombed are "traitors to guests." The Ninth Circle is very near to Satan himself at the center, and is surrounded by a river (some say a lake) of ice. 

"Within, you can hear the souls of the damned bemoaning their fate, with only their faces free of the ice that traps them.  

"I used several field recordings in this piece: mainly voices echoing in an abandoned Iron Age stone hut in Wales, but also ice cracking and squeaking from a late-winter ice storm near Boston, myself stumbling over wet rocks on a cold beach, and echoes of chants from a disused cathedral. 

"Finally, exiting and entering announcements from various subways bracket the piece, as any modern Dante would undoubtedly be taking the underground to Hell. Throughout all there are the implications and traces of guests who, despite their lack of corporeal form, or perhaps because of it, can never leave."

Part of the Inferno project to imagine and compose the sounds of Dante’s Hell, marking the 700th anniversary of The Divine Comedy. To find out more, visit http://www.citiesandmemory.com/inferno