Cities And Memory

I listened to this beautiful excerpt of Nadeng singing to her child and the sonic presence of children and a baby. I grew increasingly attached to their voices and carefully traced their audible responses to each other. I read about the context of this recording – mother to child, mother to children, singing in South Sudan. The wars that have afflicted this place. The civil war that had recently ended, and the war that would commence soon after Nadeng sang in this recording. The traditional instruments and songs of the area and the people. I chose to use the field recording unadorned, foregrounding Nadeng’s singing - so her voice, the children, the baby and the incidental sounds, all lead the new music composition and sound art here, as I recast the lullaby into a song cycle, and in which contemporary instruments respond to all the sonic elements within the archive field recording. The woodwinds are in a dialogue with the voices from the archive recording, the percussion and bass supporting each voice (instr