Slaughter in an Essaouira souk, Morocco

Take a trip around the bustling souks of Essaouira, Morocco, today – in particular, come with us to the poultry souk, a dimly-lit, close little souk full of caged birds and meat shops. At the end of this walkthrough recording, if you listen closely you can hear the the somewhat unpleasant sound of a chicken being slaughtered as the Essaouira souk goes about its daily business.

City version:

As part of our Three Words project, this sound and its what3words location inspired Alex Hehir’s piece “Souk Slaughter”:

“I used the words (///goes.rescue.tonality) as musical /sound cues for firstly delving into the field recording and pulling out sounds.

“This then informed the direction and mood of the piece. I found the sounds of slaughter quite troubling and wanted to reflect this with the repetitive bass pulse that is throughout the majority of the piece. The mixdown process was done live to create as much movement and dynamics as possible.

“I have used the field recording in a number of ways including small fragments for percussion and time stretched versions running underneath the musical elements.”

Memory version: