Join
now to receive all the new
music
The Museum of Viral Memory creates,
including this release
and 152 back-catalog releases,
delivered instantly to you via the Bandcamp app for iOS and Android.
Learn more.
Artist: The Bromley Symphony Orchestra featuring The Underwood Piano Harlequintet
Title: Cities & Desire: Kellina, from Invisible Cities
Kellina is the final Invisible City in our dreaming of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. It is available on that album, but is also its own album, just as a city is a part of a metro area and geographical region; of a state and a nation.
The story of Kellina is at bottom.
The story of how it was composed is:
A powerful dreamer we sometimes encounter in our travels is Italo Calvino. He does not spend a great deal of time in our Dreamlands, preferring to explore worlds more tangential to our Earth's, so when we do encounter him it is always a pleasure and we endeavor to spend the time we can with him.
Not long ago, Randolph was traveling in the company of Mina Harker and a few of her friends. They came across Calvino and shared tea at a little spot famous for its arcane brews. In reminiscing about their shared passion for music, Randolph and Calvino found they also shared a passion for the soundscape of the city of Armilla, a watery percussive place, brimming with life and musick, and yet empty by any traditional human standard.
Orlando then, a little worse the wear after many days of enjoying mushroom tea, suggested that Calvino take the group on a soundwalk through some of his Invisible Cities, as they were all sensorially open and sensitive by then, primed for the aural engagement of new places and strange visions such listening provides.
Kellina is one of the Invisible Cities that Calvino shared with the group, one he discovered only after his initial atlas was published.
Cities & Desire: Kellina
As you approach Kellina you first hear through the forests you trespass, a drifting lullaby, as of your mother when she has sung you to sleep and the barest of threads draw you back momentarily from slumber to consciousness and the soft sound of her whispering song.
As you draw nearer to the singing city, the lullaby becomes a chorale, the sound of many voices raised up in joy and praise. When you reach her gates, however, the sound changes again, to the babble of a creek, the mellifluous tones of water filling the air, each aural niche filled by its own appropriate communication/song.
Entering the city for the first time, you realize that all these sounds were the single sound of the city heard in a multitude of ways, each environment you passed through adding the music of its own sounds and reverbations, each ecology joining its song to Kellina's. Next you realize that the true sound of Kellina is a cacophony, one that momentarily stops you in your tracks and leaves you speechless. Indeed, this is no figure of speech, for in Kellina every citizen speaks a different language, yet despite this fact, they all can understand one another. On first arriving a visitor has no words, no language of their own, yet. They speak their native tongue, but none can understand them. It is only after a night or seven at the inn that the traveler begins to comprehend and be comprehensible as they learn to speak their own language and hear the languages of others. Their new polyglot grows richer and richer until they are fully fluent in their own Kellinian tongue. And then they hear again the songs that the city sings through its citizens, the music of the place.
When a group of visitors speaking the same language arrive, they understand one another, but if they stay, over time they join the symphony of voices, perhaps even without noticing that they no longer speak their birth language.
To stay in Kellina and become fluent in your own language, to join the city choir, though, is like all inexpressible experiences the greatest of joys but also the most damaging of addictions, for once you have spoken in your own personal tongue you can never truly speak another language and to leave Kellina is to become mute.
credits
released April 25, 2023
Inspired by Italo Calvino, Doug Blandy, and Alan Moore
Inspired by The Muse Kelliope
Composed by Homo Hubris
Arranged by Sentimental Witches
Performed by The Bromley Symphony Orchestra featuring The Underwood Piano Harlequintet
Dedicated to dreams
In memory of the future
Alisaard Artaud Bass
Aram Cardiff Bass
Aubec, Earl of Malador Bass
Blink Bass
Caspar Last Bass
Corum Jhaelen Irsei Bass
Goldberg Burroughs Bass
Konrad Arflane Bass
Lord Erekosë Bass
Michael Kane Bass
NꙨ Moon Bass
Once A Day Bass
Rush That Speaks Bass
Sewn Up Bass
BlꙬming Moon Bassoon
Budding MꙬn Bassoon
Elric of Melniboné Bassoon
Ermizhad Mieville Bassoon
Honoria Cornelius Bassoon
Houd Toop Bassoon
Tabitha Stephens Bassoon
Zhinsinura Jest Bassoon
Alice Didion Cello
Alivale Harari Cello
Arkady Gilliam Cello
Brian Cello
Brom Monahan Cello
Cixin Jones Cello
Colinda Dovero Cello
Conrad Mongolfier Cello
Denys Winterset Cello
Gabrielle Palin Cello
Graf Ulrich von Bek Cello
Ilanth Kropotkin Cello
Kid(d) Cello
Lady Gradesmor Cello
Lewis Carroll Cello
Martin Chapman Cello
Mrs. Ameila Underwood Cello
Oshbek-Uy Proudhon Cello
Roland duFrancia Cello
Shaleen Monteverdi Cello
Teeplee Cello
Xena Cleese Cello
Mistress Christia Choir Mistress
Bishop Castle Clarinet
George Wilkes Clarinet
Gilbert Slater Clarinet
Hardy Idle Clarinet
Lord Jagged Clarinet
Oonagh von Bek Clarinet
Russell Innes Clarinet
Sentimental Witches Composer
Chad Scarborough Computer Programming
Eugene Debs Conceptualist
Alter Koshar Dancer
Ꚙna Perssꙮn Director
Kirana Fawwaz E-Flat Clarinet
Umpata Numan E-Flat Clarinet
Alan Powys English Horn
Idelba Irving English Horn
Artos the Celt Flute
Bao Xinhua Flute
Duke Dorian Hawkmoon von Köln Flute
John Daker Flute
Kung Jianguo Flute
Madame Sururi Flute
Sabrina Spellman Flute
Zhu "Tuanjie-kexue" Isao Flute
Ryan Sensible French Horn
Shi Fandi French Horn
Kali Thorstenson Harp
Pan Xichun Harp
Rose von Bek Harp
Sam Oakenhurst Harp
Asquiol of Pompeii Horns
Badim Clausen Horns
Devi Lucas Horns
Euan Sampson Horns
Freya Thorstenson Horns
Iolinda Vanian Horns
Jochi Murdach Horns
Li Pao Horns
My Lady Charlotina Horns
Queen Ilian of Garathorm Horns
Samantha Stephens Horns
Ship Faustini Horns
Vol Nonik Lyricist
John Dee's soul entrapped in an amber homunculi Muse
Roger Penrose Muse
The Ghost Of Athanasius Kircher Muse
The Muse Kelliope Muse
Bhakta Wilson Oboe
Hu Die Oboe
Ismail ibn Mani al-Dir Oboe
Lord Mongrove Oboe
Maxim Arturovitch "Pyat" Pyatnitski Oboe
Mejink-La-Kos Scabies Oboe
Renark von Bek Oboe
Selim the Third Oboe
The Kerala of Travancore Oboe
Werther de Goethe Oboe
Bai McCay Percussion
Endora ℵ0'>3ῥῶ Percussion
Franik Herbert Percussion
Kiyoaki Crowley Percussion
Kuwo Bokhari Percussion
Oone the Dreamthief Percussion
Peng-ti Niven Percussion
Prince Flamadin Percussion
Clea Rhasok Piano
Iwa McChrystal Piano
Budur Radwan Piccolo
Sojan Shieldbearer Piccolo
Ernest Wheldrake Poet/Lyricist
Petra vonPetra Soprano
Ghardas Valabasian Stones, All manner of Stones
Ulrich Rudric Renark Otto von Bek-Krasny Synthesizer
Busho Fromwest Timpani
Keeper of the Wampum Timpani
Ulric vꚚn Bek Timpani
Ulrich vꚚn Bek Timpani
Duke of Queens Trombone
Iagogeh, the One Who Hears Trombone
Pournachas Jemisin Trombone
Rhalina and Medhbh Trombone
Straight Arrow Trombone
Zigzag Trombone
Bold Bardash Trumpet
Brannart Morphail Trumpet
Eric Beck Trumpet
Gurni Gurnisson Trumpet
I-Li Sontag Trumpet
Kyu JAMMs Trumpet
Oona von Bek Trumpet
Zheng He Trumpet
Shen Adichi Tuba
The Iron Orchid Tuba
Alerik Solnit Viola
Bihari Rilke Viola
Bistami Marshall Viola
Bistami Singleton Viola
Captain Oswald Bastable Viola
Clen of Clen-Gar Viola
Cronarch Vinge Viola
Hogg Viola
Insef Clarke Viola
Jack Karaquazian Viola
Katima Hyde Viola
Kokila Beckett Viola
Kya Coello Viola
M'v Okom Sebpt O'Riley Viola
Miss Mavis Ming Viola
Odysseus Norton Viola
Oladahn Althusser Viola
Psin Borges Viola
Shardul Gygax Viola
Zaneeta Kheel Viola
Bahram al-Bokhara Violin
Bao Ssu Violin
Butterfly Violin
Catherine Cornelius Violin
Clovis Marca Violin
Gordon Ꙫgg Violin
I-Chin Tibet Violin
Ibn Ezra Violin
Ibrahim ibn Hasam al-Lanzhou Violin
Iwang Peake Violin
Jaspar Colinadous Violin
Jehamia Cohnahlias Violin
Jermays the Crooked Violin
Jerry Cornelius Violin
Jerry Cornell Violin
Jhary-a-Conel Friedman Violin
Jherek Carnelian Violin
Kang Tongbi Violin
Karl Glogauer Violin
Khalid Ali Abu al-Samarqandi Violin
Kheim Tarkovsky Violin
Libussa Cartagena y Mendoza-Chilperic Violin
Lord Jagged of Canaria Violin
Manfred von Bek Violin
Mouse Violin
Pao Stapledon Violin
Peng Cage Violin
Queen Eloarde Violin
Roger Violin
Said Darya Violin
Sayyed Abdul Aziz Khan Violin
Shih Lem Violin
Zunli Hsieh Violin
Har$ is consistently genius. His sounds & sound art are endlessly creative & inspiring. On thsi release, hear the history of art as told by the keytaps of students. Aesthetic & conceptual perfection. The Museum of Viral Memory
Total musical heroes. We love this label/band/enigma. We also collaborate with them, so, biased maybe? The Fencepost Reclamation project, of which this is the final volume is astounding & inspiring. The Museum of Viral Memory
supported by 10 fans who also own “Cities & Desire: Kellina”
Jesus! what kind of gems i find in my collection.
once more I'm reminded of another remix-album (2003) by a quite famous group from Norway. ;-) psy_collab
