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 lends itself beautifully to the dreamy, hypnotic qualities the recording evokes. The track I chose felt very compelling, drawing the listener into a dreamlike world with its distant, echoey water drums. Although the boominess made it slightly challenging to work with, I decided not to EQ the original track, as I loved the distant, muffled quality. It felt like a heartbeat deep in the jungle.

I used granular synthesis to fade sounds in and out, and to randomise some of the textures and frequencies enhancing this dreamlike atmosphere, while the melody represents a dragonfly flitting gently around as we relax.

The glitchy sounds represent radio waves, a connection between the present and the past, like static energy lingering from the moment the clip was recorded.

Overall, the piece is an exploration of memory, place, and time, using sound to blur the boundary between past and present in a gently immersive, dreamlike way.

Forest sounds with distant water drumming reimagined by Trees Can Talk.

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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