3696: The orange tree, the fountain and a long-forgotten love - a podcast by Cities and Memory
from 2021-02-25T07:52:19
::
::
"Rome's Orange Garden is extraordinary - a spiritual place of deep significance to so many people over hundreds of years.
My piece starts with a gently sweeping, dreamy soundscape that is 100% created from the awesome original field recording - so many possibilities in there! Granular synthesis and sampling techniques have been used on nearly every sound from the recording (including the mechanical noises - turned into deep, gentle booms).
At around 90 seconds, an acoustic guitar enters and the mood changes. In my mind the story moves from a nebulous set of memories where you can almost (but not quite) pick out individual sounds from the garden, to a more definite musical 'moment' accompanied by the gentle sound of the fountain (again - processed via granular synthesis). Other sounds from the original recording heard behind the music include the first percussion entries at 2 minutes - created from layers of various sounds, including the gravel footsteps.
The musical story rises and falls, led by the warm tone of a xaphoon (single reed wind instrument that has similarities to the more well-known duduk). A battered old dulcimer takes on the melody for the contrasting section before dramatic live vocals and a duduk join with the xaphoon as the main melody returns. As the guitar fades away, the narrative slips back into a more ethereal dream-state to finish."
Piece by Mark Taylor as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
My piece starts with a gently sweeping, dreamy soundscape that is 100% created from the awesome original field recording - so many possibilities in there! Granular synthesis and sampling techniques have been used on nearly every sound from the recording (including the mechanical noises - turned into deep, gentle booms).
At around 90 seconds, an acoustic guitar enters and the mood changes. In my mind the story moves from a nebulous set of memories where you can almost (but not quite) pick out individual sounds from the garden, to a more definite musical 'moment' accompanied by the gentle sound of the fountain (again - processed via granular synthesis). Other sounds from the original recording heard behind the music include the first percussion entries at 2 minutes - created from layers of various sounds, including the gravel footsteps.
The musical story rises and falls, led by the warm tone of a xaphoon (single reed wind instrument that has similarities to the more well-known duduk). A battered old dulcimer takes on the melody for the contrasting section before dramatic live vocals and a duduk join with the xaphoon as the main melody returns. As the guitar fades away, the narrative slips back into a more ethereal dream-state to finish."
Piece by Mark Taylor as part of The Orange Garden project by Cities and Memory, in which multiple artists create a new composition using the same original field recording as source material and inspiration - see the whole project at http://www.citiesandmemory.com/orangegarden
Further episodes of Cities and Memory - remixing the world
Further podcasts by Cities and Memory
Website of Cities and Memory