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Each Morning of the World #05
Oceanian PhoNographic Mornings #08/20
Mullumbimby ~ Northern New South Wales ~ Australia
Latitude: 28.5532 Longitude: 153.5000
«Colony»
Jay-Dea Lopez
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Mullumbimby is a small town in New South Wales, Australia. Originally inhabited by the indigenous people, the Bundjalung, in the 1850s Mullumbimby was colonised by European timber cutters who used the river system to float logs to boats waiting downstream. During this period the Bundjalung culture was disrupted and the ecosystem was forever changed. Huge areas of forest were turned into farmland. The Bundjalung endured massacres and dislocation.

Today Mullumbimby has a growing population. Old farmland is slowly being turned into suburban developments that add more stress to the native habitat. Along the river, where timber cutters once floated logs to the ocean, a small colony of fruit bats has taken up residence, perhaps displaced by the ever-diminishing area of trees. Early mornings along the river are filled with their screaming calls, the air has an acrid stench. I love this new form of colonisation, nature returning in a wild and unwieldy way right in the centre of suburbia.

The recordings that constitute this piece were taken over 1 hour. Beneath the sound of bats you can hear tiny spots of autumn rain hitting the microphones and heavier drops hitting the roof of my car. As the bats subside the short piercing call of rainbow lorikeets flies overhead while below I tap the metal railing of a bridge that spans the river. It is just one collection of sounds being heard in post-colonial Australia on a Sunday morning.


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Jay-Dea Lopez
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The sound-based work of Jay-Dea Lopez delves into the psychogeographic aspects of environmental and personal space. Within this field Lopez reflects upon the way in which sound informs our relationship with our social and environmental heritage.

Lopez’ compositions have been featured in galleries, radio, stage, festivals and films in Australia and abroad.

Lopez lives and works in Main Arm, northern NSW.


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soundslikenoise.org
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