A New Sushi Spot DRAFT

Composer’s Letter

While brainstorming ideas for this podcast I wanted to challenge myself to tell a story organically. That is to say I waited for a moment, or an event, where someone revealed something about their history that piqued my interest, and then ran with it. In this case it happened in a full circle moment while at dinner with friends in Brooklyn. I want listeners to come away with a personal piece of New York history, told through the lens of someone who has made a life in the city. In some way, I’m allowing the audience to become a fly on the wall in a private moment of my life that I have shared with others. Their experience should take them out of whatever pressing thoughts they have at the time, and let them sink into another world. While recording, I switched up my speech pattern to sound warmer, welcoming, and non-judgemental. This in a way masked my in-person personality which is usually loud and boisterous with lots of laughter and smiles. As the voice guiding the narrative, I figured I should be as inviting as a close friend would be to the listener. In order to the audience in our world, I added appropriated sounds from various audio libraries that give a city feel and edited them to work within the narrative of the story. A clank of plates here, a train running there, and calming background music set the tone for the piece. Thankfully, my interviewees were very descriptive in their language and brought to life the color of the story. However, I’d like to ask whether or not I need more imagery in my own narration? Do you feel as if something has been left out or needs to be cut? I chose not to describe my subject physically because I felt like it would take away from the actual story, but do you think this was the right decision? Are you left feeling like you need a mental picture of the people speaking? Sound limited me in a lot of ways. I couldn’t rely on an image or series of images to convey what happened. The voice of the speakers and the sounds of the environment are the only way to tell the story. Building layers upon layers of sound was a great exercise in listening and on some level meditative, and in all it was completely necessary. I listened to the recording alone, with just disembodied voices speaking and was left with a serious longing for something more substantial, that sated my curiosity. I figured if I was feeling that, then the listener would feel it times ten. Do you think the piece needs more environmental sounds?