According to Greek mythology Hercules completed twelve tasks, the tenth being the parting of Europe and Africa. As such, it is believed that there are two pillars where this took place. One on the Rock of Gibraltar and One in Morocco. Whilst both sites are visible to each other during clear weather, they are miles apart with the Mediterranean straits separating them. GSM decided to reunite these sites through a musical project.
ABOUT
Gibraltar is a unique place for many reasons. The furthest southern point of Europe and the gateway for the Mediterranean Sea. A British territory, but wholly unique in culture, pace of life, language and identity. The airport, beaches, commercial shipping port, cruise terminal, high street, nature reserve and the Rock itself ensure that the sound of this landscape changes with every step taken. Gibraltar being such a small land mass with rich mythology and history, plus such sonic diversity made this the ideal location for a GSM project.
According to Greek mythology Hercules completed twelve tasks, the tenth being the parting of Europe and Africa. As such, it is believed that there are two pillars where this took place.
One on the Rock of Gibraltar and One in Morocco. Whilst both sites are visible to each other during clear weather, they are miles apart with the Mediterranean straits separating them. GSM decided to reunite these sites through a musical project.
The ‘Rock’ of Gibraltar houses many caves and spaces used throughout history including the second world war.
The GSM team gained access to these spaces and managed to record the ‘Reverb’ inside these locations and through post production have made theses ‘Spaces/ available to be used in music production software. A full pack of these impulse responses is available in the GSM shop.
According to Greek mythology Hercules completed twelve tasks, the tenth being the parting of Europe and Africa. As such, it is believed that there are two pillars where this took place. One on the Rock of Gibraltar and One in Morocco. Whilst both sites are visible to each other during clear weather, they are miles apart with the Mediterranean straits separating them. GSM decided to reunite these sites through a musical project.
GSM separated into two teams with one taking European musicians to the top of the Rock of Gibraltar whilst the other crossed the Mediterranean Straits to Morocco where they met a group of local musicians. At precisely midday, both groups of musicians performed in synchronisation in a one-off recording session. The purpose of this was to record an individual performance, that when played back would reunite these two geographical locations.
The combination of rhythms and percussion instruments in this piece fuses European and North African musicality to create a unique composition. Both parties engaged with sampling sessions at these sites allowing music producers to include single hits and loops to new compositions.
Our environmental sampled are recorded in high resolution, all files are 96KHz audio recorded in various locations throughout Gibraltar, click on a pin below and sample some of the sounds from Gibraltar.
[wpgmza id=”1″]
Thanks
A huge thanks to the following for their help on the project, UCLan – BA (Hons) Music Production students: Brandon James Nightingale,Kieran Scally, Nicola Jones, Nathan Lee, Joseph Heaton, Andrew Fleming, Louis Denyer
