Do It Live
Austin Remixed explores the sounds of Austin with Dana Falconberry, DJ Orión &more
To capture the sounds of the city, Austin Remixed, an interactive multimedia project that aims to plot Austin’s musical hotspots by working with KUT and its Austin Music Map project, turned the recording over to the people.
“These songs are like little love letters to Austin,” Howle said.
After putting a call out to the community to send in their recordings of Austin’s distinctive sounds and ambient noises (not necessarily of the musical persuasion), producers passed the clips on to seven local artists, who were challenged to incorporate them into a new, original songs, which they’ll perform live this Sunday, December 16 at The ND.
The artists performing range from the Latin-influenced DJ Orión García to indie songbird Dana Falconberry. Seven artists will each be performing one song.
According to community outreach coordinator Hayley Howle, KUT has received almost 100 sound files. Many of them come as expected: water splashing at Barton Springs, grackles chirping. But like so many things in Austin, there were some unconventional submissions.
“Someone sent us the Doppler recording of the blood flow through his cardiac ventral valve,” Howle said. “We pretty much got a heartbeat.”
To weave the sounds into their songs, Howle said artists are still writing their own melodies, but are using the Austin soundscape as additional beats and interesting layers.
“We’ve heard a few of the songs and it’s interesting how these musicians can take any sort of sound and make it a drum beat,” Howle said. “It’s completely amazing.”
The hope, Howle says, is to eventually release these new songs on a mixtape album. All the clips that were made available to the artists are already available on Austin Remixed's SoundCloud. And next year, they want to go bigger, to better capture the living music that makes Austin the Live Music Capital of the World.
“These songs are like little love letters to Austin,” Howle said.
The Austin Remixed performance takes place Sunday, December 16 from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. at The ND. The show is free and open to all ages. The artists performing include Orión García, Adrian Quesada, Dana Falconberry, Blaze, Graham Reynolds and Butcher Bear, Soundfounder and Hard Proof Horns, and Roger Sellers.
Before the show, preview two of the songs created from the sounds of Austin.
Dana Falconberry's Austin Remixed:
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