Zande songs (Andy Lyon reimagining)

The recording was made onto wax cylinder between 1928 and 1930. Sudan has a very turbulent past - a history of trading in slaves and ivory, a number of different administrations, a policy of separate development compared to North Sudan leading to a period of neglect. It's a forgotten history that really needs more prominence.

This inspired my approach in a number of ways. I tried to achieve a respectful balance between preserving and retaining the original recording in its original context as much as possible whilst using modern software and techniques. I decided to use the recording as the sole sound source for my composition. 

I used a number of samplers, granulators, loopers, delays and send effects. This was to present parts of the recording like echoes of the past or forgotten memories, including a kind of lost radio broadcast returning from the past; finding new rhythms and harmonies within the recording; exploring melodies and dissonances within the recording whilst highlighting and retaining parts of the original recording. 

Zande songs to accompany grinding of crops reimagined by Andy Lyon.

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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 project at citiesandmemory.com/century-sounds