Squatters and unwanted insects of the Malayan Revolution
Nov 10, 2021, 03:18 PM
"Working with this recording inspired me to learn some of the history of the Malayan Revolution. I like to work with audio collage and cut-ups, so I chose a technique where I could incorporate audio samples from old British movie reals about their efforts in Malaya, along with bits from a documentary. I also used contemporary field recordings made of rainstorms in Singapore.
I thought the music used by the Voice of Malaya would work well with some military drums so I layered those in at the beginning along with static and other sounds recorded off of shortwave radio.
Mixed into that was explosions and artillery and sounds of war. It starts off chaotic and goes into a disorienting cut-up piece, where fragmentary voices talk about the time period juxtaposed against the movie reel pieces. Bamboo flute textures were also used to convey a jungle feeling. For a short piece I can't convey the complexity of the situation, but could convey the chaos of it, with the aim of sounding as if a person were briefly tuning into this period of time."
I thought the music used by the Voice of Malaya would work well with some military drums so I layered those in at the beginning along with static and other sounds recorded off of shortwave radio.
Mixed into that was explosions and artillery and sounds of war. It starts off chaotic and goes into a disorienting cut-up piece, where fragmentary voices talk about the time period juxtaposed against the movie reel pieces. Bamboo flute textures were also used to convey a jungle feeling. For a short piece I can't convey the complexity of the situation, but could convey the chaos of it, with the aim of sounding as if a person were briefly tuning into this period of time."
Composition by Justin Patrick Moore.
Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave