Maasai 94

"The moment I received the sound file, I was pretty assured I knew exactly what I was going to do. While the words of the tribal song change, the melody alongside the call & response from the widows of the Maasai tribe of Kenya spoke to me in its repetitious, looped like fashion, and as such, I wanted to treat the file a bit like how Reich did his seminal minimalist "Come Out" (1966) composition, and as such I looped, layered, delayed, and effected layers upon layers of the widows singing, slowly introducing further layers and effects as the composition's time goes on. 

"It has long been my understanding that African tribal songs are rooted in a deep spiritual connection with our planet, and the cosmos, and as such, I crafted an ambient drone from the NASA Sonifications of Galaxy M94, which by absolute serendipity paired perfectly with the song of the widows. 

"I've added an additional Roland SH2 synth layer, a slow attack and release sub bass, and a random arp on a Yamaha DS55 Music Box patch with some effects in tow to round things out. 

"The idea is for the music to supplement the layered, effected, and looped song of the tribe, but to never fully take over, allowing the backdrop of our universe to be the canvas the song of the tribe is painted upon."

Maasai tribal song reimagined by Akira Film Script (Ryan Watts).