Full Recording

http://soundcloud.com/you/tracks

Posted on soundcloud is the full audio recording of the previous snippets posted earlier. Here it is evident the full extent of the proceedings that follow the actual burial. Though all these events are extremely important to the culture i think it is important to understand that an audience might be confused by the variety of emotions that are put forth. There is no way that the complexities of a culture can be truly unraveled and should try to be explained. At the beginning of the recording, dancehall music is heard pouring out of a car during what is known as a "nine night". The jittery music provides the score for the chatting, humming and general movement of my mother around the space. The audio becomes less about mourning and in turn indistinguishable from that of a dancehall gathering. What the complete audio funnily enough encompasses is the Jamaican culture, one that is tied to the hybrid, the creole. One that teeters on brashness epitomized by the dancehall culture and overtly religious. The music sung by the artist Movado juxtaposes the typical Jamaican male ego ( an ego propagated in the dancehall culture) with the style of an islamic call to prayer. While the creole language is mangled within the shoddy audio environment, language itself also becomes a testament to this hybridization.

The section that immediately follows is the sermon that commemorates the life of my Great Grand Uncle "Eddy". The service begins with the voice of the pastor, soon after my mother's voice enters the environment and serves to compete with the proceedings taking place around her.  During this moment she speaks to my uncle about other deceased family members. One by one she reels other members into her conversation, the choir at once recedes into the background as her voice begins to dictate the audio. The officiators soon take control once more, closing off with a word from Uncle Eddy's grand - daughter, speaking of her cherished moments with him. In one instance she speaks about her body being inhabited by a ghost and Uncle Eddy helping her to get rid of the "duppy". The audio ends with their last moments together.

During this project the idea of building and layering seems almost second nature to the concept. I want the audio to convey just that. After transferring the audio from cassette to a digital recording, i have begun recording additional audio of my grandmother singing various songs that were sung during the funeral procession. This will help to build up the bare recordings that i have originally started with. The audio will serve to bind all the disparate elements within the installation. As the sermon continues and the moment of submersion draws closer and closer, there is a tension that is heightened between the power that rests within the body and the more powerful family structure that lay beneath. Though not evident to anyone outside the culture, this movement and fortification of power becomes an element i would like to mediate throughout the installation.