Cities and Memory - remixing the world

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Recorded at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1947 by Dr. Harry Oster. Courtesy Archive.org.

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined by Ian Haygreen.

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined by Alex Hehir.

"I felt really inspired to write an atmospheric gospel theme around this recording.I have used all of the recording and left it fairly intact apart from a bit of repetition at the beginning and end of the piece.The rhythmic sounds all came from within the original recording and used to create a sense of the monotonous work these prisoners were forced into."

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

""Composed by Adam Hulbert, with additional sound design by Phil Young. Contains field recording from 'Angola', the Louisiana State Penitentiary (recorded by Harry Oster, 1947) and field recordings from the February-March 2013 protests at Nauru Detention Centre (recorded by Keti Airport 2013 - used with permission).

Description:

At the time the No More my Lawd was recorded, the Louisiana State Penitentiary was infamous for a racially prejudicial treatment of inmates likened to slavery, and former prisoner William 'Ole Wooden Ear' Sadler (his ear was cut off in the prison) likened it to hell on earth. (1)

Asylum seekers to Australia who were detained in the island of Nauru also found themselves imprisoned in a detention facility operated by the private company Broadspectrum (then Transfield). In 2012, an Amnesty team visited the reopened detention centre and described it as """"a human rights catastrophe ... a toxic mix of uncertainty, unlawful detention and inhumane conditions"" (2). The recently leaked Panama papers identified a culture of secrecy; reporters could seldom visit the island and former inmates described a scenario where staff from Wilson Security would use violence against children with little fear of repercussions. (3)

In 2013, Australian immigration and border protection minister Scott Morrison directed departmental and detention staff to change the language they used to refer to asylum seekers who arrived by boat to Australia as 'illegal maritime arrivals' (or 'illegals') and asylum seekers in detention as 'detainees' rather than clients, which was considered by many to be part of an ongoing attempt to dehumanise asylum seekers in public discussion for political ends (4). The conditions at this time continued to be appalling, and after a scathing assessment from the UNHCR identified that the environment was unsustainable and that transfers of children should be halted, Morrison responded “we disagree with the UNHCR’s assessment on that"". (5)

The recordings in this piece include the voices of those who are not only imprisoned, but also deliberately marginalised in some of the most secretive or remote parts of the world.

(1) http://www.angolamuseum.org/history/archived-articles/hell-on-angola-the-wooden-ear-series/

(2) http://www.webcitation.org/6CRWNaOjW

(3) https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2016/04/09/wilson-securitys-appalling-record-nauru/14601240003105

(4) http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/10/24/it-right-describe-asylum-seekers-illegal

(5) http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/dec/06/nauru-gallery"

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined by Walker Wooding.

"I took the recording as a lonely and terrified prisoner's search for God to save him from the horrors of his incarceration My intent was to reassure him that he was not alone and that he will overcome his situation."

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Recorded at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1947 by Dr. Harry Oster. Courtesy Archive.org.

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined version of My Baby Got To Go by Nick St. George.

"Never have I agonised so much over a Cities and Memory project. You see, there are real human beings at the heart of this recording, not something inanimate like a fountain in Seville or a chapel in Bath. And what of those human beings? They could have been wrongly imprisoned - or maybe their incarceration was utterly justified. Were they cold-blooded killers or did they just steal some money in order to make ends meet? Whatever their crimes and circumstances, they (and their performance) deserved some respect. So I pussyfooted around the song for a while, tweaking this guitar break, treating that vocal - and the result was uninspired and insipid. Then I started to think about the train that features so prominently in the lyrics. Trains, in the context of imprisonment are interesting. They may be a means of escape - or how you are transported to jail. They can carry you to loved ones, or away from them. At speed, they can be deadly. So, I stifled my next bout of soul-searching (are trains just too damn literal in this context?), and went for it. I hope John Henry Jackson and A.C. Craig would, in some way, have approved."

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined version by Dan Gusset.

" have taken the recording of It Makes A Long Time Man Feel Bad and remixed it to represent a 21st Century take on black oppression. That is to mask it and disguise it, to hear it as a haunting voice from the past, rather than part of the continuing modern day reality. It's important to work with such sensitive source material respectfully. I've therefore intentionally kept the words audible and preserved the repetitive nature of both the song and of the forced labour. This is further emphasised by repeating the recording whilst blurring the original with time until it is almost lost but is still just recognisable."

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Recorded at the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1947 by Dr. Harry Oster. Courtesy Archive.org.

Part of our Prison Songs project - see www.citiesandmemory.com/prisonsongs for full details.

Reimagined version of My Baby Got To Go by Marie Tueje.

"In contributing to the Prison Songs project my objective was to create a piece that retained the spirit of the source material whilst re-imagining for a contemporary context. Despite a radical re-working, an echo of despair and loneliness connect Alan Lomax’s1 My Baby Got To Go with the re-titled A Train Is Coming. This work was inspired by two themes; repetition and disruption, and the roots of this dichotomy were planted by chance. I was reading about the origins of the slogan ‘arbeit macht frei2 ’ (work sets you free) that appeared, notoriously, at the entrance to a number of Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War. I learned that, in an apparent act of deliberate rebellion, prisoners who had to make the sign at Auschwitz I3 conspired to render the ‘b’ of the word arbeit upside down. I found the repetition of prison life (and, indeed, everyday life) coupled with the disruptions (‘little rebellions’) that serve to break up the very mundane interesting. The three parts of the piece tie (very loosely) with the three stanzas of My Baby Got To Go. The decision to only use fragments of the lyrics is reminiscent of a today’s environment, where our communications are often fragmented, partial and succinct. Part 1 establishes the themes of repetition and disruption, with some heavily distorted tones. It is not meant to be subtle. Part 2 is the most cohesive section, with a definite sense of melody, harmony and rhythm; structure. Finally, in Part 3, three sonic elements (voice, field recording and, soundscape) occupy the centre, left and right speakers, respectively."