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Global Sound Movement

18/11/2015Releasing Rare Sounds From Across The Globe
 

Subject of a recent FACT magazine feature, the UK's University of Central Lancashire's Global Sound Movement team of staff and students is dedicated to "recording unique instruments from around the world and offering these sounds to composers/producers to enhance their pallet of sounds". Adding value to the overall project, they are also "committed to mapping the sonic landscapes of unique geographic locations", ultimately putting those remote spots on the musical map, while funding each musician or community they work with.

Their latest expedition took the Global Sound Movement group to Uganda, where among other activities they spent time gathering field recordings and collecting samples of (sometimes hand-built) instruments specific to the central African country such as the Adungu, Akadinda, Akogo, Amadinda, Endigidi and a host of percussion instruments. One of the locals they worked with was Albert Ssempeke (pictured above), who produced numerous samples, playing a range of drums, percussion, string and wind instruments.

The entire "Unique Sounds of Uganda" pack was recorded at 96kHz/24-bit and is now available on the Global Sound Movement website with over 240 loops and over 2GB of field recordings, royalty-free and for commercial use.

As explained by senior lecturer Phil Holmes in an interview with Sound On Sound: “The aim is to connect communities through music, and it’s a win-win situation – the communities receive income from the sales of the libraries and the music industry gets high-quality, unique sounds that can be used in new material.”

Upcoming projects are likely to include Cyprus and China.

You can now browse through the Ugandan sample library here and also listen to a dance track produced by UK producers Jack Davenport and Oliver Halstead using the Akogo (an African thumb piano) and the Adungu (an kind of African harp) sample via SoundCloud, or in the player above.

AUTHOR: Lev Nordstrom