Like monsters
Jul 15, 01:22 PM
"The field recording that I worked with is from 2016 and was captured by Maria Margaronis. It contains the voice of Mohammed, one of the many refugees who were stuck in a makeshift camp in Greece, as they were trying to make their way up north into central Europe. I wasn't aware of this incident back then so I did a little digging and read a few news articles about the situation of the refugees and camps in Eidomeni and was very sad to find out about how men, women and children had to put up with terrible living conditions and endure bad weather conditions. It also made me reflect on the current situation in Palestine and how so many people are displaced and forced to leave their homes just to survive. Not much has changed in the last 8 years.
"But what stood out to me about this particular story, was how determined these people were to reach their destination. Despite the Balkan Corridor being shut, being stuck without proper roofs over their heads and access to food and water, they remained hopeful and refused to go back. Even though Mohammed's voice and story is sad, I wanted to compose a 'hopeful' and visual piece for this project.
"I wanted to keep the field recording as is for the most part, but I treated it like spoken word or poetry - where I repeated certain lines/phrases to add emphasis. I also used some subtle vocal effects to distort his voice.
"The arrangement begins with a kind of droning bass playing the same note repeatedly without change - representing being stuck. In the background there are sounds of thunder, which were created using FM synthesis.
"I really wanted to record an acoustic piano for this project and reached out my friend Samantha who gladly agreed to help me write and perform a piano arrangement. The piano had a noisy sustain pedal, which we initially found hard to work with but decided to record anyway. Later on we thought about how naturally lo-fi it sounded - being slightly out of tune combined with the squeaky pedal was growing on us. We both agreed that it fit the emotion and story (reminded us of the 2002 movie: The Pianist).
"I also wrote and programmed synthesiser parts: an ascending melody to represent the refugees moving up towards Europe and another melody that adds a feeling of slight uncertainty. One was recorded on a Korg Minilogue through a TC Electronics reverb unit and the other was on a modular synth in VCV Rack.
"Towards the end of the piece, there are sounds of rain which were also synthesised electronically. I designed it to sound as if the raindrops were falling on tents instead of the ground to introduce a different POV."
Chios migrant recording reimagined by Arozian with Samantha Hannan.
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration
"But what stood out to me about this particular story, was how determined these people were to reach their destination. Despite the Balkan Corridor being shut, being stuck without proper roofs over their heads and access to food and water, they remained hopeful and refused to go back. Even though Mohammed's voice and story is sad, I wanted to compose a 'hopeful' and visual piece for this project.
"I wanted to keep the field recording as is for the most part, but I treated it like spoken word or poetry - where I repeated certain lines/phrases to add emphasis. I also used some subtle vocal effects to distort his voice.
"The arrangement begins with a kind of droning bass playing the same note repeatedly without change - representing being stuck. In the background there are sounds of thunder, which were created using FM synthesis.
"I really wanted to record an acoustic piano for this project and reached out my friend Samantha who gladly agreed to help me write and perform a piano arrangement. The piano had a noisy sustain pedal, which we initially found hard to work with but decided to record anyway. Later on we thought about how naturally lo-fi it sounded - being slightly out of tune combined with the squeaky pedal was growing on us. We both agreed that it fit the emotion and story (reminded us of the 2002 movie: The Pianist).
"I also wrote and programmed synthesiser parts: an ascending melody to represent the refugees moving up towards Europe and another melody that adds a feeling of slight uncertainty. One was recorded on a Korg Minilogue through a TC Electronics reverb unit and the other was on a modular synth in VCV Rack.
"Towards the end of the piece, there are sounds of rain which were also synthesised electronically. I designed it to sound as if the raindrops were falling on tents instead of the ground to introduce a different POV."
Chios migrant recording reimagined by Arozian with Samantha Hannan.
Part of the Migration Sounds project, the world’s first collection of the sounds of human migration.
For more information and to explore the project, see https://www.citiesandmemory.com/migration