CITIES AND MEMORY PROJECT - SPRING SOUNDS

I am delighted to have been a part of the CITIES AND MEMORY SPRING SOUNDS Project. I chose the recording of a single Taiko drummer at the morning ceremony held everyday at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Japan recorded by Yoshihiko Shiono.

I discovered that there is a Taiko drum performance during the annual Autumn Grand Festival at the entrance of the Meiji Shrine in the Yoyogi Park and used this as inspiration to create a powerful rhythmical drumming piece. 

The beginning of the recording is used at the start of the piece, where a single slow taiko drum beat gradually accelerates, blending with my drum sounds as the track progresses.  The tempo of the piece was taken from 3 single drums strikes in the middle of the original audio track.  I wanted the listener to feel that they were standing listening outside, so I used the end of the track without any drums and looped it in the background to create the outdoor atmosphere.

The title of the work TOMOE is the name of the ancient symbol often used to decorate the large Taiko drum heads. I created the artwork by digitally painting the image in layers.