David Leith :: Work :: Subsidence

Remixed field recording for Cities and Memory - remixing the world.

Durei-na-mbwe song reimagined.

“The work is inspired by the island’s natural beauty and by the evening songs, chants, and slit drum ceremonies of the Indigenous People of Vanuatu. The slit drums were carved from extraordinarily large, hollowed-out trees, often standing two or three times the height of the performers. The original recording was made over half a century ago, before the islands felt the first signs of rising seas. This piece offers a brief reflection on that earlier time. It opens with pitch-shifted slit-drum rhythms — deep and resonant like distant tympani — and ends with the eruption of a volcano on the nearby island of Tanna.” – Excerpt from the project site –