An abstract DJ performance made from music field-recorded in Gillett Square, East London, and tracks Shazam’d from the recordings.

Broadcast via livestream on the Crux AV Facebook page (04/20) and as part of Virtual BEAST FEasT 2020: Come Together (05/20).

Early in 2020 I began collecting field recordings of the musical life of East London’s markets, squares and parks, using a mobile device. Originally, I planned to use these local ‘worldized’ music recordings in combination with their original tracks (sourced using the app Shazam), juxtaposing the two in abstract digital DJ performances that celebrated music as an integral part of the urban soundscape. Initial experiments culminated in this fixed soundscape piece – a collage of live takes with the DJ equipment. The piece used music sourced from Gillett Square in Dalston, a site that has special significance because it was conceived as a flexible-use common space in an area of intense and imposing gentrification. It is as publicly-funded development to provide both genuinely affordable local business spaces and a multi-purpose communal area for local people to gather and listen to music.  It is home to NTS Radio, The Vortex Jazz Club and the Dalston Culture House.

Some more info on the Gillett Square development: www.gillettsquarecommunityasset.org/2019/06…e-lost/

See also: Shazam Walks & Voice Notes.

Binaural version (best listened to on headphones) –