Frozen Core

Nov 13, 2020, 12:06 PM

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Traitors to country created by William McKenna.

"Besides the original music bed, there are a variety of sounds in this project: found sounds, manipulated sounds and some that are accidental digital glitches. There are also random sounds that I recorded in my journey around the city which I pulled from my own personal archives, i.e., the music-like sounds which appear near the end that may seem like unschooled, discordant saxophone attacks. I like to think that those unexpected, mechanical, squealing horns - split left and right - pay tribute to some of my favourite free jazz saxophonists.

"One track that you hear throughout is the sound of cicadas screeching above my park bench one day this summer. I slowed the noise down to 25% speed which created a lovely, sort of wind swept, frozen-like atmosphere. I faded that sound in slowly at first, pushed it slightly louder in the mix and then cut it abruptly at the end.

"I spent considerably more time thinking about the project then producing the track which seems to be how I often approach creative work. I didn't know how I was going to structure this piece but I did know that it was definitely going to end with Lucifer's large, bat-like wings flapping to chill the ice of Cocytus.

"Trying to create something that echoes Dante's journey in that part of the Ninth Circle of Hell was challenging. "Frozen Core" is my attempt to sonically interpret the horror."

Part of the Inferno project to imagine and compose the sounds of Dante’s Hell, marking the 700th anniversary of The Divine Comedy. To find out more, visit http://www.citiesandmemory.com/inferno