Fragments
Feb 24, 2021, 10:05 AM
Fragments takes the original recording and tries to convey the essence of the listeners experience by focusing on the small things – tone, melodic textures and fragments of sound.
I began by listening several times to the recording and picking out the bare essentials – the recording has several parts but is mostly dominated by the busker so that is where I started. I like to take small amounts of sound and make something bigger – a beat, a drone or a melodic line - from a fragment of sound. Here I focused mainly on the song, and was fascinated by the way the man’s voice rose and fell on certain words and thought that I could use that to create both rhythm and texture. The guitar melody was a very evocative sound and I decided I wanted to use it, but I did not want to recreate the song, instead I wanted to get the essence of it. I found a section of guitar with the lulling underscore and created a loop – but I found that actually the best way to deal with all the sounds was in very small sections – therefore creating fragments (this is how I got my title). Finally I decided to use the footsteps, the plane and water fountain to bring it all together.
Piece by Jessica Rowland 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
I began by listening several times to the recording and picking out the bare essentials – the recording has several parts but is mostly dominated by the busker so that is where I started. I like to take small amounts of sound and make something bigger – a beat, a drone or a melodic line - from a fragment of sound. Here I focused mainly on the song, and was fascinated by the way the man’s voice rose and fell on certain words and thought that I could use that to create both rhythm and texture. The guitar melody was a very evocative sound and I decided I wanted to use it, but I did not want to recreate the song, instead I wanted to get the essence of it. I found a section of guitar with the lulling underscore and created a loop – but I found that actually the best way to deal with all the sounds was in very small sections – therefore creating fragments (this is how I got my title). Finally I decided to use the footsteps, the plane and water fountain to bring it all together.
Piece by Jessica Rowland 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