Woodend Christmas

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"Rob's story brought a slight tear to my eye at first read, and before even hearing the sound, I knew I was going to want to do minimal processing to the sound itself, as what it captures is really quite a beautiful story, although rooted in sadness, and certainly sees the family making some kind of progress after what has been some difficult years with the loss of a loved one and the separation, not to mention COVID being in the middle of all that.
"The first section of the composition sees the sound of the original recording reversed, and drifting in and out, with a slightly deep and constant bass-line. To me this felt like I was capturing perhaps the sadder years, closer to the time of the death of Clare. The removal and addition of sound in and out, to me at least, represented their traveling back and forth to actually be together at xmas, but what must have been a slightly chaotic time.
"The second section, the music stops on cue of one of the family members saying "it's stopped". I then wanted some silence whilst there is the surprise entry of Byron, and then the expletive of his sister. I had to remove a part of the recording due to a clip, it was going to be left in, but the "OMG" and "WTF" didn't seem to both be required to represent her surprise.
"From here, again being conscious of not removing the soul from this wonderful family moment, I just wanted to do a simple composition, that hopefully captures some sort of happiness being reached now that time has taken it's time somewhat. I felt the subtle pad and chord progression added this emotion well enough. I do hope that if Rob hears it, he feels what I've tried to do.. and I thank their entire family for contributing to the project, and do indeed wish them every bit of well as they move forward in life."
Woodend reunion reimagined by Chris Taylor.
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