Bhoot

I originally chose the field recording simply because I enjoyed the melody. The women sang the same melodic phrase over and over with slight changes. I felt like they were telling a story but, as I don’t speak the language, I had to look elsewhere for inspiration. 

I researched the mythology and folklore of Himachal Pradesh’s remote valleys and discovered a common ghostly tale. If you are out walking in the pine forest and you hear your name being whispered it could be wandering soul or "Bhoot" enticing you to join them. It mimics the voice of a loved one to tempt you from the path so don’t look back or you could be doomed.

The original melody was in quite a complex time signature so I used short samples of the voices and played them in common time. I recreated the original melody and variations of it in different instruments which would be common to the area. I wanted the voices to sound as though they were calling from within the trees and echoing through the valley to tempt you to follow. I used Ableton Live.

Women singing with flute reimagined by Lynn Findlay.

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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