Reel 2 Real - Audio - Sarno Seminar

Louis Sarno Seminar

Louis Sarno, pioneering field recordist, in conversation with Dr Noel Lobley, ethnomusicologist at the Pitt Rivers Museum, on the 24th April 2012.

In April 2012 Louis came to Oxford for a month as a guest of the Pitt Rivers Museum, where he collaborated with Noel to enhance understanding of the content of his archive of recordings and images. On April 23rd 2012 the Museum hosted a reception tea for Louis to share stories of the Bayaka community he lives with. Louis spoke to a packed room, reflecting on Bayaka music, his conversations with Bayaka friends, and discussed some of the pressing social and political forces that are threatening the livelihood of such communities in around the rainforests of the Central African Republic.

Further information about this seminar can be found in Noel Lobley's article in the journal Radical Anthropology, which can be found at http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org/old/journal_06.pdf

The playlist below accompanies both the article in Radical Anthropology and the seminar given by Louis.

Resources

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.