Dispersed and neglected In archives around the world reside audio recordings that offer a glimpse into the way life once was for individual cultures. Recent efforts have sought to bring these collections out of obscurity, and share them with the public and in an exercise to discover what new perspectives arise when these collections are shared with artists RE:VIVE and the Research Center for Material Culture(RCMC)/Tropenmuseum announce their “Unlocking Sounds” collaboration featuring three new EPs from Parrish Smith, Ash Koosha and Clap! Clap!
Unlocking Sounds revives Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum audio collection which features thousands of original field recordings from around the globe dating back to the 1920s. This collection was started by Dutch conservationist J.C. Lamster and Jaap Kunst, who would eventually coin the term ‘ethnomusicology’.
To connect with the source material and explore the multitude of intricacies that accompany topics like ethnomusicology, anthropology and cultural appropriation, all the artists visited the Netherlands where they conferred with leading researchers from the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, Leiden University, and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies.
Much like the sampled source material, each artist translates the world sounds through their individual styles. Clap! Clap! – DIG! DELVE! DAMN! (Dutch Archive Edition) strips down his bombastic, multilayered take on global rhythms, jazz, and footwork, letting the samples take center stage. Drawing on the archive’s recordings from Afghanistan, Suriname, Zambia, Bali, Libya, India, Uzbekistan & Morocco, accompanying and accentuating them with his singular voice.
Ash Koosha – Chimera offers a completely different take on sound and traditional music, modulating the sounds to fit his lively futuristic sound, with the entire EP representing a seamless journey through digital worlds of his imaginative creation.
Lastly, Amsterdam’s Parrish Smith – GENESIS BLACK dives deep into his Surinamese roots reflecting upon the writings of Surinamese slave resistance fighter Anton de Kom to deliver an impassioned, heavy narrative whose social commentary is strengthened by every dark rhythm and drone.
RE:VIVE is the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision’s initiative that specifically brings together archives and electronic music. RE:VIVE has commissioned past works from Lakker, Fis, Roly Porter, Hatti Vatti, Bas Mooy and more. Here RE:VIVE is tying in with RCMC’s Activate program. Activate is a series of projects intended to uncover the contemporary meanings of the Tropenmuseum’s collections for different local and global stakeholders. Activate is focused specifically on working with artists, poets, writers and performers to interpret the collections in new ways and to create new works inspired by them.
All three EPs will be digitally available for free. The schedule is as follows: July 14 – Ash Koosha; July 21 – Parrish Smith; July 28 – Clap! Clap!.
For immediate streaming:
Ash Koosha – Chimera One : https://soundcloud.com/ashkoosha/chimera-one
Artwork for Ash Koosha – Chimera is by Negar Shaghaghi www.negarsha.com
