An immersion into a feeling

"This piece is inspired by a soundscape recorded at St. Mary’s Basilica by Serge Bulat. In my initial listening to the piece, and in the reading of their text, I was stuck by characteristic sounds and qualities of a culturally significant space on several levels. First the space itself - a basilica, which is a place of worship, contemplation and reflection ( both in the literal sense of the acoustics of a space and in the intangible sense of mind and spirit’s reflection.) In this sense I seek to preserve the feeling of these spaces, as a sonic image with an intangible heritage. In this sense, a portrait and an immersion into a feeling of a place, replete with the sense of community, unity and gathering. I particularly concentrated on the voices and the overall body of the priest and the congregation, underlining perhaps less of the idea of attractive architecture, but rather that of a serene, connected presence of gathering people - each with a distinct voice, yet part of a large collective voice, in an ancient place, rich with history and histories.

"In the construction of the piece I used samples of fragments of the congregation to make grouped choral segments and a longer sample of the voice of the priest conducting the mass or homily. These were EQ’d to make the most of the reflective quality of their voices in the space, and mixed with a small loop of heavily filtered synthesizer, with a bit of reverb in an attempt to match the spatial quality of the voices."

Kościół Mariacki reimagined by Robert Dansby.

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This sound is part of the Sonic Heritage project, exploring the sounds of the world’s most famous sights.

Find out more and explore the whole project: https://www.citiesandmemory.com/heritage