Inspired by personal struggles with sleep and wakefulness, this sampling of the Fajr adhan uses exclusively sounds from the adhan in a composition that expresses my personal experiences and turn toward the routine of salaat as a measure to fix my sleep. My intention was to communicate through music this encounter with a part of Islam, the reasons and the feelings and the outcomes of the encounter. While worried about problematic aspects of the composition, and aware that the personal is always political in these days, I nonetheless chose to approach the piece in a way to honestly convey my experiences and feelings.
Reactions to the piece included reflective silence, sympathy, and understanding. On the other hand, my action of re-ordering and remixing phrases of the adhan were met with a kind of cautionary curiosity. I am very interested in reactions like these, simply as a way of understanding other perspectives on this part of Islam to which I have devoted much personal thought. The trance-like and transportive qualities of the piece were recognized by several peers and I was happy to have been able to share something that I felt through the medium of composed sound.
May 18, 2017 at 9:02 am
I cant hear the soundtrack! The pictures are beautiful…please re check and I will from my end too–hopefully the sound will come through to all listeners
May 18, 2017 at 9:06 am
Got it! Nice work…..very trancelike and meditative in parts–and disturbing and nightmarish in others.