Music in the Castle of Heaven

Back to Hamburg, Germany – the scene of our huge 2014 project Hamburg Sounds, in which we unveiled 42 sounds from the city in just 24 hours.

The mighty organ of the city’s St. Michaelis cathedral (known as ‘Der Michel’) booms into life, playing a piece by Bach – it’s a hugely impressive sound.

Mark Taylor reimagined the sound, titling his new piece ‘Music in the Castle of Heaven’, as he explains:

“The title of the re-imagined version comes from the book of the same name by John Eliot Gardiner – a study of JS Bach.

“Everything in the remix comes from the original field recording; nothing has been added.

“The opening motif was created from three short audio snippets – time-stretched, re-pitched and generally mangled in some of Reaktor 5’s granular ensembles. The rippling pad that enters later is actually the complete original track processed through the granular capabilities of Reaktor 5.

“As well as internal effects within Reaktor, Camel Audio’s ‘Camel Space’ was used extensively as a multi-effects unit and the whole track was mastered using Izotope Ozone 4.”

City version:

Memory version: