About Towers

Radio masts avant la lettre

 

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On January 20th 2021 WÖR will release a new album: About Towers. This album is build around melodies found in tune collections made by Belgian carilloneurs.

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Here in the Low Countries, from 1500 on, the carillon (a set of tuned bronze bells suspended in a large tower) functioned like a modern-day radio station playing the hits of the day. ‘Carillonneurs’ were professional musicians who collected and adapted existing melodies, and played them on the carillon for all sorts of events and occasions. In addition, gigantic music boxes played tunes on the  bells to indicate the passing of time, several times per hour, day and night. Since the sound of this immense musical instrument could be heard for miles around (whether you liked it or not!), the carillonneurs served as the original DJs, playing the hits of the generation far around the region. Many of these melodies are known in different countries. The endless debates about where the tunes originally come from are almost impossible to resolve!

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Just like the carillonneurs, we collect banging original tunes from the 18th century and ‘remix’ them in our own arrangements. We may not be as inescapably loud as the carillon, but you might find that these catchy tunes stay with you no matter how far you travel.

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They prefer to bring this music physically back to the buildings where they once sounded: churches, bell towers, chapels, castles,...

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Interested? contact.wor@gmail.com

 

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