08.03 (Sat)
Romare has spent the last year collecting samples and working on a concept: that a new form of music can emerge by investigating the relationship between different musical cultures through sampling.
Samples of songs, speeches, interviews, field recordings and films were carefully chosen and rearranged to explore the connection between African and African-American music. Rhythms from West Africa are integrated with voices from Harlem, conversations about race and identity between writers and ethnomusicologists are constructed, speeches from activists are conjoined with the voices of prisoners. This process of combining preexisting material has inspired four 'Meditations on Afrocentrism'.
Originally, information about each sample was going to be disclosed on the back of the record sleeve, giving listeners the opportunity to trace each sample and form an interpretation of the song through an understanding of the different sample sources.
Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, this has not been possible and instead an audio track was composed entitled 'Footnotes (Meditations on Afrocentrism') to communicate the concept instead. This 13 minute track of cut up samples describes the pro... More Biography
Samples of songs, speeches, interviews, field recordings and films were carefully chosen and rearranged to explore the connection between African and African-American music. Rhythms from West Africa are integrated with voices from Harlem, conversations about race and identity between writers and ethnomusicologists are constructed, speeches from activists are conjoined with the voices of prisoners. This process of combining preexisting material has inspired four 'Meditations on Afrocentrism'.
Originally, information about each sample was going to be disclosed on the back of the record sleeve, giving listeners the opportunity to trace each sample and form an interpretation of the song through an understanding of the different sample sources.
Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, this has not been possible and instead an audio track was composed entitled 'Footnotes (Meditations on Afrocentrism') to communicate the concept instead. This 13 minute track of cut up samples describes the pro... More Biography