"“One Single Sheep Bell” pairs the original recording with excerpts of an audio interview with my dear friend who was born in Slovakia in 1968. When she was very young, her family had dramatically escaped from the now-defunct nation of Czechoslovakia to the USA. Knowing this, I told her a little about the current project, hoping to hear a bit more of her story. It turned out to be a fortuitous pairing! The eponymous sheep bell comes from her interview, providing formal structure for the composition.
"The full recording of the shepherd in Dedinky is played through once, EQ’d to sound thin and distant. Played a second time less attenuated, the original recording sounds fuller but is shortened by several cuts. My approach to the placement of the interview vocals differs in the first and second sections as well. To begin with, the voice is interspersed more solemnly with the shepherd’s song. But as the story becomes lighter and more playful, my friend’s vo
