Charlemagne Palestine – Jamaica Heinekens In Brooklyn

Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn (1998) commissioned by the NPS, Hilversum.

"Begun in the spring of 1997, this work came out of the idea of traveling with an electronic drone on a ghetto blaster and re-recording it in different situations in many countries. After several months of unsuccessful experiments, I decided to record different soundscapes first and then to superimpose a drone later. [...] The most impressive, expansive and sonically interesting was the recording I made on the 5th of September 1997 on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn during the Jamaica Day Parade. [...] The 60+ minute segment on this recording is played without any editing, but super imposed upon this extract I have composed three series of drone textures for Yamaha organs, 16 Serge & Rubery oscillators with bandpass filtering, and a thick Arp Synthesizer texture using oscillators, filters and other other sound modulation devices. All together this work creates a dialogue between pure and mixed electronics of my long continuum tradition and the real-time ambient sounds of a traditional urban ethnographic popular festival."

Post-production editing at CEM studios, Amsterdam.

Thanks to Piet Hein van der Poel, Co de Kloet, Michael Fahres and the NPS radio Hilversum, The Netherlands.