Cities And Memory

YAZ is a vocal and electroacoustic composition built from a field recording of an Aït Haddidou market in Rabat, captured in 1961. What struck me immediately was the presence of a young boy’s voice, cutting through the density of the market: a call. Not directed at anyone in particular, yet lingering. That voice became the starting point of the piece, an echo moving through time and memory.Research into Aït Haddidou and Amazigh musical culture revealed a relationship to voice that is inseparable from daily life. Singing is not performance. It belongs to work, ritual, gathering, and transmission. In Amazigh group singing, voices move in unison. A song exists because a community carries it, through repetition and collective presence, as an acknowledgement of life itself.The piece opens with my voice recorded as a soft lullaby, an intimate humming inspired by the singing women carry inside the home. I chose a wordless melody to allow the voice to transcend language, time, and place, reflecting how memory often s