Dan Jones

Dan Jones

http://www.liftfestival.com/events/past-events/2010-lift-festival/lift-2010-programme/music-for-seven-ice-cream-vans-dan-jones

My first impression of Dan’s ‘Music for the Seven Ice Cream Vans’ is that it is an unconventional piece of music that you wouldn’t  normally hear coming from an ice cream van.

When listening to this piece of music you could hear the diegetic (natural recorded sounds) of birds, sounds of which you would hear every day in an open environment. It’s like he included not only the soft toned music but the music around him, this music represents all the sounds you would hear if you was to go out to the ice cream van. Whilst listening to the music it automatically brings you back to your childhood. The music reminds me of that innocence you have as a child where everything seems magical. I also like how it creates this image in my head of my summer holiday when I was a child where I would go to the park and here the subtle sound of the ice cream van as it left it would slowly fade.

As a child, the sound of the ice cream vans is really music to the ears. So everyone in the Canning town and Rainham areas are sure to be salivating with memories of screwballs on summers day when composer Dan Jones ‘music for seven ice cream vans’ roll onto the streets’.

I think this piece of music demonstrates how sound can trigger memories, the artist Dan Jones focused on his childhood memory of the ice cream van which is often associated with happiness and freedom . when recording sounds I will select those that generate my most vivid memories that I have from the summer holiday and sounds that often get neglected like the soft hum of a car engine and the constant tweets from birds.