The watchmaker's dream

Aug 29, 2022, 01:22 PM

"The watchmaker falls asleep in his studio on a cold winter's night, work hard to come by in this digital age as he wonders how he will pay his incoming bills. As he falls asleep, like a classic Brothers Grimm story, he dreams that tiny elfin helpers appear from the corners of the shop and finish his work for him, working feverishly with magical hands until daybreak. The piece winds down from its crescendo back to a slow pace, and the watchmaker awakes once again, to realise it was all a dream.

"The modular synth starts slowly in parallel with the metronomic ticking of the watch, then as the watch is wound further, the pace picks up and multiple, interweaving layers of synth line begin to flow. After a higher-energy peak, the pace slows down as the watch naturally unwinds once again. Composed primarily using a Moog Subharmonicon alongside the original field recording and layers of additional synths in some sections."

Composition by Cities and Memory. 

This is part of the Obsolete Sounds project, the world’s biggest collection of disappearing sounds and sounds that have become extinct – remixed and reimagined to create a brand new form of listening. Explore the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/obsolete-sounds