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Making music out of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld

xyrumdubya.jpg
 
Who would have thought you could make music from speeches by George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld? Well, this is exactly what minimalist composer Graham Fitkin and percussionist Joby Burgess did in 2008 with their number “Chain of Command.”

Fitkin wrote “Chain of Command” which uses samples taken from speeches by Dubya and Rumsfeld about Guantanamo Bay, the Iraq War and the inquiry into prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib. These extracts were then carefully edited, manipulated and slowly rebuilt to create a “confrontational and direct work, which examines the use of constantly looped, loud music, 24 hours a day, as torture at Guantanamo.”

Performed by Burgess on his xylosynth (“a hybrid instrument somewhere between a xylophone and a synthesiser”) “Chain of Command” is a powerful piece of political music.

Check more of Fitkin’s work here.
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.07.2014
09:11 am
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