SPIRITUS
“SPIRITUS explores breath as a space between confinement and freedom, from the hard acoustics of prison walls to the vast resonance of Rochester Cathedral.”
SPIRITUS is a 20-minute site-specific spatial sound meditation, created in collaboration with 2Makeit, bringing together recordings made with men at HMP Rochester and HMP High Down prisons, cathedral organ, spoken word and immersive spatial sound.
Developed from a series of creative sound workshops inside the prisons, the work explores breath as both a physical act and a metaphor for hope, freedom and transformation. Human voices, spontaneous music-making and the sounds of prison life are woven through a slowly evolving organ composition, allowing the confined acoustic world in which the project began to expand into the vast resonance of spaces such as Rochester Cathedral. At its heart is a simple idea: while we breathe, we hope.
THE SOUND OF SPIRITUS
“SPIRITUS brings together two forms of breath: the human breath of the voice and the mechanical breath of the cathedral organ.”
THE MAKING OF SPIRITUS
SPIRITUS brings together three interconnected sonic worlds: field recordings captured during meditative voice workshops inside HMP Rochester and HMP High Down prisons; a slowly evolving composition for cathedral organ; and Dum Spiro Spero (“While I breathe, I hope”), a spoken-word work written and performed by Del, an artist with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
Voices, breath, spontaneous music-making and the everyday sounds of prison life move through the spatial soundfield alongside the organ, creating a dialogue between two radically different acoustic environments, the enclosed spaces of the prison and the vast reverberation of the cathedral.
“SPIRITUS began inside the prisons, with breath, voices, instruments and the sounds of the buildings themselves, captured before anyone quite knew what they might become.”
FROM PRISON TO CATHEDRAL
SPIRITUS grew out of a series of creative sound workshops led by Dan Samsa with men at HMP Rochester and HMP High Down in collaboration with 2Makeit. Using 360° recording techniques, the sessions captured not only breath, humming, vocal harmonies and spontaneous music-making, but the acoustic environment around them, keys, doors, radios, conversation and the incidental sounds of prison life.
When Rochester Cathedral commissioned a new work for Art on the Delta: Take a Breath, these recordings became the starting point for something larger. Samsa began composing for cathedral organ, placing the intimate, enclosed sounds of the prison within the extraordinary acoustic space of the cathedral. The contrast became fundamental to the work: two radically different architectures, connected through sound, breath and resonance.
“SPIRITUS began with the breath of the men inside prisons. From there, breath became the architecture of everything, meditation, the chemistry of the blood, and the mechanical lungs of the cathedral organ.”
BREATH AS STRUCTURE
The idea of breath extends into the architecture of the music itself. The organ composition unfolds through a repeating 16-stage harmonic cycle, drawing on Anapanasati, the Buddhist practice of mindfulness of breathing, traditionally structured around sixteen contemplations.
Within this framework, another hidden system shapes the harmony. The sequence 7–3–4–7–4–5 is drawn from the narrow pH range of healthy human blood, approximately 7.34–7.45, translating a measurement associated with the body’s internal balance into musical material.
These systems are not intended to be heard as codes to decipher. They sit beneath the surface of the work, allowing breath, physiology and meditation to quietly determine how the music moves through time.
“For one day, the cathedral became a breathing space, the voices of men recorded inside prison returning throughout the day, transformed by the organ and the vast acoustic around them."
BREATH AS STRUCTURE
The album was also realised as a fully immersive online experience through a complete 360º audiovisual version on YouTube. This groundbreaking presentation allows listeners to explore the entire record in spatial sound and interactive visuals, rotating freely within the environment as the music unfolds around them. The animated visual world was created by Alec Jagodzinski, while the detailed 360º spatial mix was crafted by Fellipe Baldauf, translating the album’s studio concepts into a genuinely interactive digital format. Rather than a conventional video, it becomes a living, navigable performance, inviting audiences to step inside the music and experience Contours from any angle they choose.
“Breath begins as something private and invisible. In SPIRITUS, it becomes sound, architecture and shared space."
ART ON THE DELTA
SPIRITUS was commissioned by Rochester Cathedral for Art on the Delta: Take a Breath, a day of art, music and participation exploring breath in its many forms. The work was performed several times throughout the day, allowing the cathedral itself to become part of the composition its vast reverberation carrying the recorded voices and breaths of men from HMP Rochester and HMP High Down through the building.
Performed live on the cathedral organ by Makoto James, each iteration placed the intimate sound world of the prisons inside one of the largest acoustic spaces in which the project had existed. Across the day, audiences could encounter the work almost by chance: entering the cathedral, sitting, listening, and allowing the sound to unfold around them.
“SPIRITUS changes with every space it enters. The architecture does not simply contain the work; it becomes part of it."
BEYOND THE CATHEDRAL
Following its first performances at Rochester Cathedral, SPIRITUS continues to evolve as it moves into new spaces. Each presentation is shaped by the architecture and acoustics of its setting, allowing the relationship between breath, voice, organ and spatial sound to be heard differently each time.
The work grew from my collaboration with 2Makeit, a charity using music, art and creative expression to support people in prison and after release. Their programmes create opportunities for people to make, collaborate and be recognised as artists, building confidence, self-esteem and relationships through creativity. Their work, and the trust they build with the people they support, made SPIRITUS possible.
In 2026, SPIRITUS continues beyond Rochester Cathedral with performances at Union Chapel, London, in September and with 2Makeit at Bloomsbury Festival in October, carrying the voices at the heart of the work into new spaces and new audiences.
CREDITS
composed & produced: Dan Samsa
spoken word: Del
organ: Makoto James
created in collaboration with 2Makeit
commissioned by Ideas Test and Rochester Cathedral for Art on the Delta