Giant Swing

Giant Swing

Standing proud in the centre of Bangkok, the Giant Swing is located in-between the historical City Hall and Wat Suthat Thepwararam buildings, and has a rather interesting history. 

Made from round-lathed teak tree trunks, and standing at an impressive 21.15 metres, the swing was originally constructed in King Rama I’s reign (1737-1809) and used as part of a Brahman Hindu ceremony in which young boys would attempt to swing high enough to grab a bag of silver coins placed on top of the pillar with their teeth. 

The swing was faithfully reconstructed in 2007 though it’s still possible to see the old version - in the Bangkok National Museum. 

Artist Notes:

I was drawn to how something which was originally created and experienced through ancient ceremony, relating to religion and story - is now a quiet yet powerful piece of sculpture, surrounded by busy traffic, people taking pictures of themselves etc.
I tried to create a piece which is meditative yet strong against the chatter of the city scape.
I used swing like pendulum rhythms throughout the piece to reference the past use of the swing. many layers are overlapping and becoming a single complex layer which represents different points in time.
And it was important to create very large drones which represent the huge pillars.
The recordings of atmosphere are important to me because that is what surrounds it on a daily basis.
The piece ends in a way which symbolises night time, when the traffic dies down, the tourism ceases to exist and the giant swing is left in momentary peace.

Rival Consoles

Rival Consoles 

Originally from Leicester UK, Ryan West, AKA Rival Consoles, has been releasing music on Erased Tapes since the label’s conception in  2017.

His trademark sound is known for bringing a warm, human side to electronic production, and spans a range of sound worlds, taking in elements of electro, glitch, and atmospheric material which has recently seen him soundtracking an episode of apocalyptic thriller series Black Mirror, and an audio-visual show in collaboration with Boiler Room at the V&A London.

Song Image

You can play this track only when you are at its location.

Check the map above

Rival Consoles

The Giant Swing