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First night recording men's songs in the rainforest

The video clip below shows Louis Sarno talking about the first time Bayaka men took him into the rainforest in 1987 to record their songs, and is part of a series of video interviews with Louis that were recorded in April 2012.

On the 13th March 1987 a group of Bayaka men took Louis Sarno into the rainforests to record their music for the first time. This playlist is a full record of more than two hours of non-stop singing and performance. Louis Sarno recalls that many of the finest male singers were present here, including Mokoko, Engbeté, Ngongo, and Mbilima. Engbeté leads many of the songs, and the men move through lots of different repertoire including So, gano, and hunting songs. The men also performed a fake gorilla hunt, and another hunt that included the sounds and signals used to impersonate and trap animals. Bayaka women's polyphony is particularly well known and recorded, so this playlist of dedicated male singing is especially rare and important.

Sound Galleries

Musical torchlit trails at the Pitt Rivers Museum

On Friday November 23rd 2012, the galleries of the Pitt Rivers Museum were plunged into evening darkness and bathed in Bayaka music and sound from the Central African Republic. Visitors were given torches to explore the galleries that were transformed into a rich forest soundscape with sung fables, snatches of laughter, beautiful variations on harps and flutes, and the stunning polyphonic singing of Bayaka women. Hidden surprises included mini projections from the rainforests and a visualiser designed by Nathaniel Mann, the PRM's Embedded Composer in Residence. The evening was filmed By Mike Day of Intrepid Cinema as part of the Reel to Real project, and complemented the Oxford City-wide Christmas Light Night organised by Oxford Inspires. A four hour playlist of Bayaka music from the PRM's sound collections, originally recorded by Louis Sarno, was curated on the evening by Nathaniel Mann and Dr Noel Lobley. The event was streamed online, and was watched live in the Central African Republic by Louis Sarno and some of the Bayaka community.

 


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Copyright 2012 The Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford