A DJ set of field recordings from the sound archive at the Pitt Rivers Museum, mixed by the Museum's ethnomusicologist, Dr Noel Lobley.

THE FUTURE OF ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUMS

On the evening of Saturday 20th July 2013, the Pitt Rivers Museum was bathed in sound, darkness, light and performance to showcase the Museum and its sound collections and composer in residence, Nathaniel Mann, as part of the "Future of Ethnographic Museums" Conference hosted in collaboration with Keble College, University of Oxford. 

http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/PRMconference.html

This mix contains a selection of field recordings from the sound archive at the Pitt Rivers Museum, chosen by Dr Noel Lobley, the Museum's ethnomusicologist, and designed to be broadcast into the galleries in the dark and resonate with hidden performances by Embedded composer in residence, Nathaniel Mann. The sounds range from conch trumpets in Vanuatu to spirits whistling in the rain forests of the Central African Republic; and from ringing folk songs in Madeira to beautiful sanza music in South Sudan. 

Full information about the sounds featured in the mix  can be found below:

1: Natar - Markany Lei on conch, Wani on musket (Vanuatu, October 1962) [1993 6 164 1]

http://snd.sc/18ALw0u

2: "Merer Pake" - an nDavu trumpet signal for a full circle tusked boar (Vanuatu, 1962) [1993 6 155 6]

http://snd.sc/19fUVdk

3: Durei-na-mbwe by the Broken Consort (Vanuatu, May 1961] [1993 6 86 6]

http://snd.sc/19fUXlE

4: Ibo vocal group with leader and percussion (Umucuku, Nigeria, 1911) [1914.80.150]

http://snd.sc/19fV1lc

5: Moru sanza music from South Sudan by Timon Beri [1/5] [2013 1 11 A 1]

http://snd.sc/19fV2FO

6: "Noriya" - a men's generation song from South Sudan [2013 1 2 A 1]

http://snd.sc/18ALEgw

7: "Bailinho da Madeira" (Camach Rancho folk dance from Madeira, danced by children) [2012 78 102 1]

http://snd.sc/19fVbsM

8: U'wa whistling from North East Colombia [2012 68 17 5]

http://snd.sc/19fVeF2

9: U'wa drones from North East Colombia [2012 68 14 2]

http://snd.sc/19fVfJd

10: Chocó woman calling a parrot [2008 113 2 5 10]

http://snd.sc/19fVi7O

11: Pigeon Whistles at Norwich & Norfolk Festival. Audible Forces (edit)

http://snd.sc/19fVmUV

12: A Bayaka spirit whistling a boyobi tune (Central African Republic, 1994) [1997 21 2 118 B 2]

http://snd.sc/19fVofM

13: Bayaka geedal music and singing (Republic of Congo, 1994) [1997 21 2 65 A 12]

http://snd.sc/18ALVjL

14: Mindumi playing mbyo with others singing (Central African Republic, 1989) [1997 21 2 341 (edited)]

http://snd.sc/18ALYMl

15: Water drumming by Bayaka women and youths, Republic of Congo, 1994 [1997 21 2 134 B 14]

http://snd.sc/18AM0DR

16: Bayaka women singing yeyi in the rainforests of the Central African Republic [1997 21 2 98 A 6]

http://snd.sc/19fVAeT

17: Ngbanda playing the ngbindi earth bow (Central African Republic) [1997 21 2 132 B 11]

http://snd.sc/19fVBzj

An un-mixed playlist featuring all of the full recordings can be heard here:

http://snd.sc/18AM8U3

Sound Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum project website and blog:

http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/reel2real/
http://pittrivers-sound.blogspot.co.uk

Image taken by Jaanika Vider, copyright Pitt Rivers Museum

DJ set of field recordings from the sound archive at the Pitt Rivers Museum mixed by Noel Lobley

Excerpt from Hand of Stabs Black-Veined White album. 
Full length track/album is 68.33 minutes.

Available as a limited edtion box set and string bound booklet versions.

Available here:

http://ayearinthecountry.co.uk/black-veined-white-day-238365/

Hand of Stabs - Black-Veined White (excerpt 2 from album)

Title track from Leafcutter John's new album, Resurrection(Pathway009)

A panoramic sound world of drifting vocals over a densely-processed terrain of mud-caked percussion and guitar, Leafcutter John’s new solo album, Resurrection, is a characteristically unique blend of the electronic and the acoustic, the hi-tech, the human and the homemade.
Resurrection is the sixth Leafcutter John album and his first solo release since 2006’s The Forest and The Sea CD/LP(Staubgold). In the intervening nine years, John has toured from Vietnam to Venice, appeared live with Beck Hansen and Imogen Heap, and provided the score for Crow, a major theatre project by Handspring (creators of War Horse). 

During this time, John has also maintained his permanent role as the unpredictable, electronic antagonist in Polar Bear, the twice Mercury Music Prize-nominated, genre-defying jazz band.
This new record marks fifteen years of releases by Leafcutter John. Born John Burton in Wakefield (Yorkshire, England), his highly original musical voice was first spotted by Mike Paradinas, label boss of Planet Mu Records. Over the course of his first three albums (2000-2003), John established and developed his idiosyncratic London-based studio, and his skills as an inventor of unusual instruments and extraordinary music software.
Resurrection begins with the sound of a single bell, in homage to one of John’s major influences, Bernard Parmigiani’s De Natura Sonorum (1976). From there, the album unfolds over five cinematically varied tracks, “like floating above a world in constant flux,” in John’s own words. In fact, aerial photographs of the Japanese tsunami of 2011 were a direct inspiration for the record.
“I would create complete, fully-formed compositions,” says John, “then later, I’d come back to them, playing the part of
the destroyer, scraping and smearing away elements, weathering, piling up and re-ordering them, as if they’d been hit by a natural disaster.”
Not content with the usual tools available to the electronic musician, John has created innovative new systems and techniques for both live performance and production. This includes a light-controlled instrument that allows him manipulate his live sound through gesture, flickering candles, flashing torches and pyrotechnics. For the track “Gulps,” John coded special software to layer huge swathes of sound. Using a recursive system, he created 7.1 billion layers of a recording of the North Sea, one for each human alive on the planet at the time of writing.
Featuring a guest appearance by Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet), “Gulps” is a poignant demonstration of John’s
approach: Hutchings’ intimate clarinet is gradually engulfed by a (literal) ocean of sound. This is sculptural sound design
where technological innovation is always at the service of the emotional impact of the music: deeply human at its root, and
mind-expanding in its ambition.

Desire Path Recordings
www.desirepathrecordings.com | leafcutterjohn.com

Credits
Written and produced by Leafcutter John, with Varpu
Kronholm playing additional percussion on “I Know You
Can” and Shabaka Hutchings playing Clarinet on “Gulps.”
“Endless Wave” contains elements of “Forest Of Spades” by
Strings Of Consciousness, used with permission.
Mastered by James Plotkin
Photography by Max Baillie
Design by Chris Koelle, Leafcutter John, and Varpu Kronholm

Distributed by Revolver

Leafcutter John - Resurrection

Collaboration with The Revenant Sea. 
https://soundcloud.com/the-revenant-sea
http://www.wizards-tell-lies.co.uk/the-revenant-sea/
https://simimansound.bandcamp.com/

1991 - 1994 Part 1 (The Revenant Sea 1095 Lost Days Remix)

prepared harps & St Pancras church (extract) London Nov 2014

Elmley Frogs

Nite Lite - Springingtime

Hand of Stabs, from Rochester in Kent, are a sound worker's collective whose events and recordings draw inspiration from their exploration of local, often forbidden, landmarks. They create improvised sound pieces, which can be simultaneously uplifting, difficult and intense using both traditional and home-built instruments. Many of their performances take place within the landscape – in woodland, field, or rain-lashed long barrow at Winter Solstice. They have played in a ruined school, derelict basements, Kent’s remotest church, the studio of a Turner-nominated artist and on board a light vessel. Each performance is a tense interplay between the performers resulting in a form of archaesonic dowsing, an interaction with place that is unique each time. “Feral Kentish sound sculptors” – Pete Wiggs & James Papademetrie, The Séance.

Elmley Frogs

Hand of Stabs

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