"Rien ne se perd, rien ne se gagne"

This composition is a first attempt to create an evocation of the sound scapes enveloping the north of Ituri,

 a province in the N-E of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

In july & august 2021 I had the honour of spending 7 weeks with the Okudheyo family in Rokosi, a small village along the road from Aru to Watsa.

With the Okudheyo home in Rokosi as a base, Haldi & I traveled to different places in the

Territories of Aru & Mahagi to collect field recordings & interviews : the Ituri forests & savannahs, scenes of daily life, the Kibali river, a mine in Djalasiga, the shops & bars in Rokosi.

The languages heard in this piece are Kilubara, Lingala & French.

This composition is but a small part of a ongoing collaborative project with Haldi Okudheyo & Rey Sapienz entitled “Contested Soils” (working title), which attempts to investigate & sonify the long-term consequences

of the Belgian colonisation of the DRC (1885-1960) using recorded oral histories, field recording, music

and archival material.

In this composition, I attempted to bring together some of the field recordings to construct a free-form sound-narrative, without the use of interviews, to hear which stories the surrounding environment will tell on its own.

Some of the people whose voices you will hear in this composition :

Haldi, Fatia, Adriko, Alain, the workers of the “Kolwezi” mine in Djalasiga, Grâce, Maliki, Bila, Champion, some of the inhabitants of Rokosi passing by Haldi’s house & many others.

Special thanks to Rey Sapienz & the Okudheyo family

Info:

“Rien ne se perd, rien ne se gagne”

5-channels, 96k, 24bit

Recording : July-August 2021

Composition : June-August 2022

Length : 29’45’’