The forest of spirit

I listened to the first 20 seconds of the track, heard the hummed murmur of a Ba'aka voice and thought, "I can work with that." It wasn’t until the next day that I heard the engaging, immersive, gently rocking polyphony that the murmur develops into. I learned that the Ba'aka musical style is over 30,000 years old, older than any continuous musical heritage. UNESCO describes Ba'aka music as a "masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity".For me, the beautifully simple, deeply resonant recording needed to be front and centre - ancient polyphony, charming music borne of and a reflection on the spiritual forest the Ba'aka inhabit, now under multiplied threat. Deforestation, civil war - commercial colonialism is eating away at their home and aural heritage, even conservation efforts. Intangible archaeology is being lost. What will matter is what we do with these sounds. It is hoped that by bringing the recording into another musical world, I can in some small way help connect with their heritage as well as amplify a shared future. A Ba'aka voice can be heard at the start: “Better record that.” Bayaka voices in the forest at dawn reimagined by David Lol Perry.———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