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
If you wish to listen to more sounds or use our recorded Drum STEMS to write your own music or play around with sound, we invite you to do so by downloading this folder of samples to experiment with in your own time. If you create something, please share your sound discoveries with us!
Dong Son Drums STEMS were generously recorded by Salina Myat and Adam-Cooper Standbury