Long in the way time past time when the earth was young, and the human beings have not yet come to the earth, there were only the animals. One very cold winter, the animals were freezing, and they had no fire. But there was one animal that had fire, and it was the giant wasp. They lived high up in the mountains alone by themselves, and not sharing the fire. Coyote who was so clever said, "this is quite unfair, that the wasp could be warm up in their cave in their mountains", so he called a caucus of powwow to gather all the other animals, and he said "this is not fair what the wasps are doing, we need some fire for ourselves". So they made a plan and Coyote took a long walk that it takes to get up into the mountains to visit the wasps. When he got there, he knocked on their door, and they said "who's out there? go away, we don't want company!" Coyote said, "it is me, Coyote, and I've come to make you beautiful". (he was kind of like the Avon lady) In those days, the wasps were only yellow--they were giants, big stingers and big wings, but only yellow. They said "okay, Coyote, come on in, but we know..." (to be continued...)
Recorded at The Power Station @ BerkleeNYC
Recording Engineer: Omisha Chaitanya, Music Score: Sitara, Vocal Edit: Keaton Caldwell, Sound Design: Yangyang Hua & Jimmy Lim. Produced by Jimmy Lim for Soundbox Archive
(I remember the three bells ring of my childhood church , the mosque’s call to prayer, the clanging bowl of the noodle vendor, and of course the singing voice of my mother, father, brothers, and grandmother) Soundbox archive is close to 1 year old, and I’m extremely grateful for all the love and support it has received from when it was just in my head. It’s an infant, but also an elderly. These sounds has resonated the earth for hundreds of years and will continue to do so. We are alive, and we will always be alive, now, digitally via 1s and 0s, thanks to the hands of everyone who decided to preserve the sounds. Right here, you’ll hear an effort of ressurection, a Lazarus rising, flutes that were casted away, deemed violence, due to their love for freedom. Tchin is one of the hands that resurrected this practice, and since my hands are not as nimble, I can only help by digitizing it. I hope that you can enjoy these sounds. Today, I ask you to support us simply by listening, or telling other people about us. Let our reality be yours even just for a second. Although, don’t romanticize this, we’re not exotics, and we’re not ancient. We’re here today, in the real world: instrumental bodies that you yourself can help preserve, simply by listening.
Stereo field recording of a room sound
All ambient audio recorded in Tangerang, with instrumental samples from the Berklee Intersectional Soundbox Archive library, played live, triggered, and manipulated in realtime to a monitor output.
Recorded at Electronic Production and Design Suite, Berklee College of Music Boston, MA. Engineer: Keerthana Sudharshan
Recorded at Electronic Production and Design Suite, Berklee College of Music Boston, MA. Engineer: Josefina Ugarte, Editor: Asher Deverna
Recorded at Electronic Production and Design Suite, Berklee College of Music Boston, MA. Engineer: Yangyang Hua, Editor: Shuyi Xiong
Recorded at Electronic Production and Design Suite, Berklee College of Music Boston, MA.. Engineer: Daun Park, Editor: Asher Deverna
30+ students/mentors/musicians/engineers/artists collaborating in 3 workshops, 6 recording sessions, and counting
Berklee Intersectional Soundbox Archive is a project dedicated to celebrate voices, compositions, stories, and sound-based expressions through recording sessions and workshops, highlighting a wide range of musical traditions and culture, especially of Indigenous roots. Our goal is to build an archive that serves as both a reflection of our past, present, as well as a resource for the future: a library that is accessible to all.
Currently, BISA is a collaborative project led by Jimmy Lim, Jennifer Hruska, Michele Darling (Berklee), Michi Wiancko (Boston Conservatory), and Xenia Rubinos (Berklee NYC).
