Track By Track: Sinner Dc – Musée D’Ethnographie De Genève

The Genevan museum of ethnography has recently invited a collective of musicians to work amidst the library to reinvent and recreate some of what is buried deep amongst the archives. First up steps the Swiss duo Sinner DC who have reworked recordings from the 30's and 50's which originated in Niger, Romania, and the US. Having been producing music for some twenty odd years, and working on a vast array of albums, they have mastered a sound which makes them aptly fitting to this project in particular. The title of the album and the songs are reflective of IATA airport codes with each piece said to explore vision, diversity and imagination. They talk us through the release below…

MES

This is the opening track and is based on a dulcimer harp sample. Its rhythm has a specific 4/6 time signature which is not always easy to play live. When we usually record we were try to reduce all the noises but due to the nature of the sources and their inherent surface noises we figured out to that playing with them instead of trying to hide them added more density and textures Those little glitches and pops are friends here.

LOS

Slowing down the musical source gave a totally new mood of melancholy and paradoxically euphony. Exactly the feeling we were looking for here. With the right dose of added guitar loops we reinforced these emotions.
We've always been stunned how amazing massively slowed down tracks would sounds.

MEM

Pioneering musicologist and folklorist extraordinaire John A. Lomax recorded American fold and blues musician Lead Belly in prison while he was sentenced after a summary trial for attempted homicide for stabbing a white man in a fight. This song somehow very familiar to us, like hiding in our subconscious. We kept the original feel and a kaleidoscopic and spacial treatment to it. The purity and simplicity of Spacemen 3 productions inspired us and to quote the band leader Sonic Boom "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords ok, four chords average". We've just finished recording a collaborative album with him; that was a truly fantastic and highly inspiring experience.

ASP

Our longest track recorded so far. The source has a real acid feel that we used in an dreamlike savannah rave musical environment.  

WAW

We were really touched by the source here, those beautiful string were so fragile and emotional. 
Altering them too much would have been a crime, so we opted to a more subtle and impalpable mode and constructed this last piece like the others with still with the notion of traveling but this time without moving, a fantasy somehow real today considering the increasing use of social medias.

Buy the release HERE.