Re:SOUNDING

RE:SOUNDING aims to locate, record, digitise, and re-engage with the percussive sounds of the Vietnamese Bronze Age Đông Sơn drum.

Displaced by colonisation and the post-war trade in Southeast Asian antiquities, these drums have the significance of announcing the rain, harvests, fertility, and well-being of local communities as well as instruments of resistance and warfare. Now held in museums and collections throughout the world, this project reimagines how the Đông Sơn drum can conceptually exist beyond the museum display cabinet.

In the hands of contemporary artists and musicians, the digitised drum sample will continue the acoustic voice and cultural impact of these ancient instruments.

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James Nguyen + Victoria Pham

RE:SOUNDING PLAY

Welcome to re:sounding play. Here you can learn about our Đông Sơn Drum and play the sounds it can make. What you are now listening to is a soundscape, inspired by this drum and composed entirely out of recordings of its sounds.

To further interact with the drum, you can scroll to the two images of the drum below. By hovering over the yellow markers and scrolling over its surface, we invite you to listen to the sounds of our past.

 
 
 

Listen to Nuoc voi Dat, a soundscape using the Dong Son Drum sounds, below.

 
 

Lightly beating on the edge of the drum using the palm and fingers.

Swiping the surface of the drum quickly with the palm of the hand.

With a bamboo or wooden mallet, the centre of the drum is hit.

Using the palm and finger tips of the hands in order to beat the surface of the drum.

Rice is collected off the surface of the bronze drum creating a soft, rain-like metallic sound

Using uncooked, Jasmine rice to pour over the surface of the bronze drum face.

The base of the drum is bowed with the bow of a string instrument’s bow, in this case, a violin bow, at a 45-degree angle and higher degree of pressure to create this metallic sound.

A quick rattle on the top of one of the bronzed frogs with metal mallets (in this instance, metal chopsticks)

Harder drum hits using the base of the palm of the hands.

Soft hits using a woollen or fluffy timpani mallet

 
 

Fun fact! The RE:SOUNDING project recorded over 50 sounds (STEMS) from this single drum. The ten sounds you have just interacted with were used to compose the soundscape (Nuoc voi Dat) you are listening to as well as three commissioned works of music from musicians, Ran Cap Duoi (Vietnam), Bagus Mazasupa (Indonesia) and Victoria Pham (Australia). You can listen to their creations as part of the BLEED Program.

 

If you wish to check out all the RE:SOUNDING STEMS or download them to create your own new music, they are available for free download here.