The company of others

"In approaching the project I was struck by the evocative and ethereal quality of the original recording, in particular the call to prayer, and have tried to retain that in the three sections of this piece. There is also a timeless quality to the original, which I wanted to retain and develop."The piece is intended to present those sounds in different yet related contexts; the first section is melodic, while the second darkens and the third tends more towards the filmic or abstract (it hasn't ended up as abstract as originally planned!). Each section is distinct in nature, yet at the same time bound together by the use and reuse of the original sample material, running through the entire piece and providing continuity. "In the first section, I have taken a cut of the call to prayer in the original recording, which has then been pitch-shifted to fit in the key of the piece, which was based on the interplay of the opening electric piano arpeggio and the call to prayer sample. I have also taken elements of the background talk and added these as a sonic bed for the other musical elements to fit around, as well as treating and harmonising the samples to create depth. "In the second section the same call to prayer is used, but this time detuned and reversed, along with some sounds and elements from the first section. The third section also contains a sample of the motorbike which cuts through the middle of the original recording, and which has been sampled and used as a percussive sound to provide the rhythmic element. I have also added some of my own field recordings here, as well as library recordings of people reading poetry in various languages, to create a bed of voices, which swim in and out of focus and underpin the original sample. At the end of the third section, the original, unadorned sample closes the piece."Technical info:Recorded / sequenced in ReaperVST instruments: Universal Audio (various), Native Instrument Massive X synth, Spitfire Audio Labs (various), Decent Sampler (various)VST effects: UAD, Native InstrumentsAdditional field recordings made on Zoom HN1, built in microphonesPublic-domain poetry samples sourced from https://archive.org/details/librivoxaudio Bang Phat soundscape reimagined by Mark Gordon.