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 holes. I chose a piece which included a wind instrument and so it became a natural thing to highlight that as part of my piece. 

After listening extensively to the recording I found myself always wanting to move my feet – it was very much a dancing rhythm with constant movement. I wanted to capture that in my piece, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. With lots of discussions going on among the artists about moral aspects surrounding the collecting of these sounds I had to decide whether I was going to "mess around" with the content to the extent that you couldn’t hear the original. I wanted to make sure that I was able to include the original recording so instead of my usual cutting up I copied the sections that I felt interesting. These included a drum rhythm and flute phrases (there were two that stood out). 

I began to experiment with my own wind instruments – metal flute, wooden flute, ocarinas, to see whether I could replicate the phrases. I wasn’t too concerned if they weren’t totally accurate as I felt I wanted an echo of the original. I was also experimenting with recording binaurally and surround sound in order to reflect the way I had felt at the museum. 

After doing a little research about where the recording was made, I found a couple of things about the area that suggested rainforest sounds would make a good backdrop to my piece. I think that the sounds of the insects become part of the incessant rhythmic pace of the piece. 

The piece is very much in my usually style – a mix of rhythm and layers of musical phrases with a backdrop of natural rainforest sounds. It has moments of stillness and quiet, but underneath is the driving constant rhythm of drums and insects. I decided to include sections of the original to drive that constant rhythm and as a reminder of where it all came from.

Chocó flute and drum music with rattle reimagined by Jessica Rowland.

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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