Teasing the bells

"As a Classical Indian musician, my musical tradition is rooted in the natural environment. As such, I hear music in both the human and natural environment. There is always a medley of songs, notes and rhythms to be found in every landscape. The soundscape of the recording is no different. The bells, symbolic of the Church, represent for a Caribbean citizen as I, the European world, the world of the colonizer. It marks the centre for many Caribbean citizens. For others, like myself it is the place from which we must free ourselves as we create our own roots and tradition. For me, the Caribbean is liminal space, like sleep. Sleep is that state between death and life, the closest we are to life and death simultaneously. It is rejuvenating space where the subconscious has the space to express itself. I describe the Caribbean as a liminal space because liminality presents immense creative possibilities. Like sleep, it is in-between, transitioning, in a state of becoming. As West Indian/Caribbean people we are transplanted communities with remembered traditions, a people who have re-created and continue to re-create, from the fragments of memory passed down through generations. As such, I have used fragments of the recording and re-ordered them to lay a rhythmic bed that is a combination of rhythms that are similar to the Indian classical musical tradition. The rhythm is the centre of the piece, on which the bell's melody pivots. It ends in a release of rhythm where the melody, now whole again, drifts off."

Portuguese nature reserve reimagined by Sharda Patasar. 

Part of the Music for Sleep project - for more information and to hear more sounds from the collection, visit https://citiesandmemory.com/music-for-sleep/