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Full Credits: Sound & Video by Nyokabi Kariuki with Photography by Bob Greco
All contributing voices are included with their permission.

6:34 - A [QUARANTINE] SOUND JOURNAL

sound art film

Finalist of the 2021 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition

For several days each week, as I quarantine in Potomac, Maryland, I have been recording the sounds around me at 6:34pm and used each entry as basis for a musical work and/or sound world. Eventually, the project has grown to include sound recordings from friends and family in quarantine all over the world: from New York to Dallas to San Francisco; from Bangor, Wales, to Perth, Australia; from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to my beloved hometown of Nairobi, Kenya (of which I dearly miss). The project features a very special collaboration with NJ-based photographer Bob Greco, who, in photographing friends from outside of their window, has created captivating documentation of the unique and unprecedented nature of the situation we find ourselves in.

The journal, much like lockdown, calls attention to the mundanities of life, a return to simplicities that normalcy had us ignore, and the beauty in ourselves, and our surroundings. And while this journal's shape is unique to my emotional journey and compositional habit, much of the content will feel relatable to many - regardless of where in the world we are. It is my utmost hope that the journal provides calm, comfort, laughter, and hope.