Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Noriya is a men’s generational song celebrating and praising Ngitamo, the guinea fowl. The original recording of the Larim people in South Sudan in 1979 was from a time of relative peace, with the Ngitamo generation existing alongside the Nyoletiang (gazelles) and Nyitulabok (sheep). The melody, compound rhythm and tempo reflect this balance and resonate as song of celebration and joy, even one to dance to – a port-cruinn perhaps? 

Port-cruinn (pr. porsht-crooeen) is Scottish Gaelic for "jig" and is intended to sit alongside the joyful Noriya. The main jig melody draws on the Noriya theme, flipping from minor to major, and is carried by an underlying drone. The generational nature of Noriya is reflected in the instruments played. There are two Scottish fiddles from two different generations. The main jig melody is played on “The Annmarie”, a fiddle made by James Dooley in Glasgow in 1987 (named after his daughter who passed away very young). The secondary melody is played on a Dundee fiddle, made in 1918 by James Cochrane. The two fiddles also carry the drone with mandolin and guitar layered to emphasise the rhythm and tempo of the original recording. 

Men's generation song from South Sudan reimagined by Moray Newlands.

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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

The recording I chose is over 50 minutes of cassette tape recordings from the 1970s, capturing interviews and recordings of live music performed by communities living in the Andes in Peru. 

For the Indigenous communities of Peru, the Andes are living, sacred beings that sustain and protect life and they call the Mountain Spirits Apus. These powerful spirits of the Andes watch over communities and are revered as life-givers as well as ancestors. They are also seen as a spiritual bridge connecting through the veil between the heavens and our world and also the inner world to their ancestors. Music is a language of prayer and deep communication with the sacred Andes.

The piece is called ‘When The Mountains Sing’; this is how I hear in my mind's ear the mountains singing back to the people in the Andes. The piece is composed of samples from the recording, processed using the Torso S-4 sampler and some live playing of a tenor recorder woven into the piece. 

Andean music including flute and drum reimagined by Helen Copnall.

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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

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being one of a number of miscellaneous or individual ethnographic field recordings (rediscovered during a recent research project).

Unknown recordist.

Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

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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

"Noriya": a men's generation song from South Sudan ("Praise the guinea fowl Nyitamo/ He's always hard-working").

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of cassette tape recordings of music and spoken language (principally Laarim) made by anthropologist Patti Langton in South Sudan during 1979 and 1980.

Recorded by Patti Langton.

Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

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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

Initiation into the Poro, or secret society, constitutes the rites of manhood for the Mende people in Sierra Leone. As a means to develop the emotional landscape of this piece, I sought to put myself in the shoes of initiates, attempting to capture their feelings of excitement and anticipation. I was particularly intrigued by the call-and-response singing between the leader and choir. 

This inspired me to resample the field recording into a looper/FX unit. I then re-recorded it playing forwards and backwards at varying speeds. Stitching several of these processed samples together into a new sonic tapestry helped to form the rhythmic backbone of this piece. Sounds from the Mende Poro flutter among an energetic and hypnotic drum beat. Psychedelic layers of rich, analogue synthesizer enhance the musicality of the field recording samples, bringing about a sense of wondrousness and mystique.

Mende Poro song reimagined by Hellcat Sneer.

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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

I tried to stay true to the recording, at the same time reimagining the setting. It is a threshing song; I changed the setting to be more geared towards sitting around a fire and singing; or a wedding. 

Even in the mix, I opted for the percussion instruments to be overpowering as it is usually the case in such settings. My idea was not to manipulate the recording as much as to re-adapt it; picking up a part that makes sense rhythmically and recording several percussion instruments.

Ait Haddidu threshing song reimagined by Hossam Hilal.

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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

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of wax cylinder recordings of songs and spoken language made by anthropologist Northcote Thomas in Nigeria and Sierra Leone between 1909 and 1915.

Recorded by Northcote Whitridge Thomas.

Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

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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

Cockerel crowing: morning soundscape among the Chocó people of north-west Colombia.

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Chocó music and soundscapes made by students Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith in Colombia in 1965.

Recorded by Jonathan Ambache and Richard Saumarez Smith.

Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

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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

For this creative project, my starting point was an archival recording of a Yoruba chant from Nigeria, recorded around 1911. I chose to work with this sound because, living in West Africa, these sonorities immediately resonated in me. They echo my daily environment, my personal history, and my fieldwork, which lies at the intersection of culture, music, and museum practice.

In my creative process, I deliberately chose to work with electronic instruments. This choice may appear paradoxical, as I am myself a kora player and am surrounded by traditional artists and musicians. However, this approach was central to my intention: to bring the past and the present into dialogue, to confront archival material with contemporary creation, and to explore the relationship between sonic memory and current technologies.

It was essential for me not to alter the sound quality of the original recording, in order to respect its materiality, its texture, and its historical character. The electronic work therefore positions itself around the sound, creating a space of dialogue without ever dominating the recorded voice.

This artistic choice is part of a broader reflection on colonial sound archives, their circulation today (repatriation?), and the possibility of giving them a living, sensitive, and contemporary presence without freezing or betraying them. The aim is not to reinterpret the past, but to create an bridge between different temporalities, allowing the archival sound to continue speaking for itself.

Igbo vocal group with leader and percussion reimagined by Jerome Evanno.

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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

From the sound collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, being from a collection of reel-to-reel tape recordings of Berber (Ait Haddidu) music and soundscapes made by members of the Oxford University Expedition to the Atlas Mountains of Southern Morocco in 1961.

Recorded by Audrey Butt, Michael R. Emerson or Ralph Hudson Johnson.

Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

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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