Washington, DC (February 8, 2011)–Jason Hamacher of Lost Origin Productions used his API 3124+ four-channel mic pre to record the world’s oldest Christian music in Aleppo, Syria.
Multimedia company Lost Origin Productions explores modern people living in ancient civilizations with hopes of inspiring current-day culture with new ideas, stories and perspectives. Musician, photographer and writer Hamacher traveled to Syria for his Edessian Preservation Initiative, a project to preserve the music practiced by the parishioners of St. George’s Syriac Orthodox Church.
“An old friend of mine, Matt Squire, is a producer who has a bunch of API gear,” said Hamacher. “When I told him my plan to record the chants, he told me I needed to use API equipment to make the recordings sound fantastic. I figured I only had so many opportunities to get it right, so why not go in with the best?”
The Edessian Preservation Initiative, now in its fifth year, currently finds Hamacher in the process of capturing the first performance recordings of the Syriac Orthodox Church’s Beth Gazo, which is Aramaic for The Treasury of Chants. These ancient Christian chants have roots dating back to the year 190 C.E. and have been passed down orally ever since. Before Hamacher’s endeavor, no performance recordings of the Edessian Beth Gazo had existed.
“It’s a work in progress. I’m recording the entire Syriac Orthodox chant collection, according to the school of Edessa, with the help of API equipment,” he said. “I’ve recorded a fractional portion and I’m nowhere close to the end.” If played back-to-back, the 700 chants that make up the Beth Gazo would equal 24 hours of audio.
Hamacher said that the API 3124+ discrete four-channel mic/line pre has made the process smooth. “I’m not a full-time engineer,” he said, “but I know that by using my 3124+ and some half-decent mics, I can make the recordings sound amazing.”
