Ituri good time (2002)
music of the Ituri remixed for Radiotopia
ORF Kunstradio, 2002 The piece's page on the Kunstradio website
One of the most beautiful cds I have is called Polyphony of the Deep Rain Forest - Music of the Ituri Pygmies; it's a Jvc World
Sounds cd, recorded in the forest of Zaire. Despite its scientific
background, this album is clearly edited with an artistic aim: of the
five tracks, three are actual african musical compositions (a ballad, a
performance for voice and instrument and an instrumental trio). The
remaining two are labelled "Kukonga point - daytime polyphony" which
runs for 21'13" and "Kukonga point - nighttime polyphony" which is
9'38": long, unedited recordings of the Ituri walking around the forest, singing, hunting.
These tracks nominally capture singing, but also long minutes of silence,
laughter, chatter and background sounds - stuff that westerners usually
throw out, not being "the song". I love these parts; they put me such
in a good mood that I have decided to go radical: edit out the singing
and keep only the parts in between. This way we get to hang out with the
Ituri, hear them chat and laugh, in a truly exotic (and very well
recorded) sonic space.
There is a 5" pause between first (daytime) and second (nighttime) part.
