When Musicity and Erased Tapes came to Bangkok’s old town, seven Thai and international artists were each tasked with recording, reinterpreting, and repurposing the sounds of local landmarks to create original compositions.
Along with Daniel Brandt, Rival Consoles, Midori Hirano, and Douglas Dare, Japanese vocal artist Hatis Noit joined the Erased Tapes stable. And she struck gold: Hatis was assigned Bangkok’s most iconic structure, Wat Arun.
The Temple of Dawn is among the city’s oldest, dating back to the previous capital on the opposite side of the Chao Phraya river to Rattanakosin—the last capital before Bangkok became big enough to swallow both historic locations up. The temple is a place of calm and contemplation, brilliantly decorated in the styles of the many eras it has withstood. Hatis recorded many of the murmurings of monks and reverberations of rituals within the temple grounds, layering the many stories of Wat Arun together into a composition strong enough to stand up to her immense vocal talents.
“Space has history, and space has memory, and space has energy. I always try to feel the energy of the space and what kind of feeling, or emotion, or energy the people visiting that place have.”
Hear the energy below:
