Bayang song

This was one of the more difficult pieces I’ve worked on, although it was enjoyable working through the process. I struggled quite a bit at the beginning, as the field recording has both harmonic & rhythmic structure which varies in tempo quite a bit… so I wasn’t sure how to approach this initially.

After some thought and a fair bit of trial and error, I decided to pick up my guitar (and play the piano) and simply play along with them without overthinking it too much… so the tempo may be a little rough in places! Guitar and piano simply panned out to left/right, adding some bass/cello towards the end. I tried to match my chords with their harmony and I did feel as if I were joining in with them! I noticed the call and response structure in the field recording, so tried to incorporate this as well at either end of the piece.

I wouldn’t say it’s very genre-specific, but it’s more me joining in with them and it’s from the heart. Hopefully it conveys the warmth I felt from listening to the field recording - I hope I have done the Bayang justice in my piece.

Bayang men's songs reimagined by Jaspal Singh Bhogal.

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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