Please hold on for your safety

Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"My first memories of New Orleans were made fifty years ago during a family vacation to the city when I was seven years old. I remember a frenzied evening march down a crowded Bourbon Street holding onto my parent’s hand for safety. In the cacophony emanating from the clubs and bars onto the street one sound stood out to me. It was the plunk of the traditional jazz banjo keeping the beat amongst the chaos.
"I chose to incorporate the sound of the jazz banjo into the New Orleans field recording to add rhythm to the commotion of voices and announcements in the streetcar. Along with adding some banjo strums, I sent the sound of the instrument through an envelope follower and used the generated control voltage to modulate the amplitude of the sound of the field recording to create another rhythmic track. The resultant work reimagines the city through the filter of my sonic memory."
Streetcar in New Orleans reimagined by Pierrot Desperes.