With Cajole in F# Major I use recorded sounds from my visits to sites in Wollemi in a composition that explores my experience on the sites and the history of the area as I see it. The work is composed in three main movements each with a natural sound core motif and a digital percussion counterpoint. Each movement is representative of the relationship between the natural world and the machine or colonial intervention. The first two movements start with a building sub-audible hum and are joined by a chorus of bird and recorded in situ sounds. With these the hum recedes into the background of the soundscape. You can hear the different calls from different species of birds as well as the sound of water running. The percussion element joins abruptly in each movement, a stark almost industrial contrast to the naturalistic sounds you had become used to. Percussion in movement one represents the first colonial forays into the area, the second (a less harsh contrast) represents the somewhat unified way of working between human and nature that I imagine would have been more apparent before the industrial revolution. 

In the third and longest movement I created multiple sample instruments using some of the recorded sounds and as such was able to play them in differing notes and chords. Using this I have created an soundscape of bird sounds played in F Major. This movement is perhaps the most starkly contrasted with the percussion track with for me represents the mining industry in the Hunter Valley and the violent juxtaposition effect the industry has had on land that used to be beautiful and land that still sits directly next to great natural beauty.

Cajole in F# Major

Cajole In F# Major

METAVERSE

Source Decay is a Gamilaroi sound artist and composer who uses electronic and field recorded audio to create ambient soundscapes punctuated by driving percussive moments. 

Also particularly interested in the First Nations Folk Punk and decolonised electronica movements. 

Compositions for Awesome Black Podcasts.

Cajole In F# Major

Source Decay

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