Wynwynkorncoroll (The Doggerland Onion Horn Dance) [NDAS 2013-08a] + Dýnsgolchygân (The Doggerland Paean To Jubilant Scrubbing) [NDAS 2013-08b] are historically ambivalent re-creations of lost musical forms from a long-forgotten civilisation. Implausibly, new information about Doggish customs was uncovered in 2013 as a result of meticulous laser analysis of the surfaces of certain ceramic artefacts that had been created by Doggish craftspeople in conjunction with important rituals. When these digital scans were converted into audio information, it was revealed that the process of making the vessels had produced an outcome similar to that of early phonograph recording: the reeds used to inscribe the ceramics had etched the waveforms of proximate sound vibrations into the still-damp clay. The details of these findings were used as the basis for these two recordings.

original 2013 notes:

These two tracks were inspired by recent discoveries I made in the bathtub about the rituals and traditions of the people that once inhabited the now-submerged territory of Doggerland. The names given have been transliterated into the closest possible equivalents in the Common Brittonic language (the root 'P-Celtic' language spoken in ancient Britain and the Celtic areas of Western Europe, which later evolved into Welsh, Cornish, Manx, Breton, Cumbirc, etc). This alteration was necessary since the actual Doggish language, while similar in conception and syntax to ancient Brittonic, differed greatly in it's methods of expression. Predating conventional alphabets, it's written mode consisted of extremely specific arrangements of vegetables, hazelnut shells, bones and, most importantly, flowers (in fact, the long-standing tradition of giving flowers on special occasions is one of the most obvious descendants of this unusual form of communication). The verbal mode also differed greatly from the later Celtic tongues: vocalisations were largely restricted to small pips and whistles made by the lips and cheeks with the mouth remaining closed, while the bulk of information was conveyed through hip swivels and jerks of the head, both made in combination with a specific positioning of the elbows.

Wynwynkorncoroll: The Doggerland Onion Horn Dance

The first track is an arrangement of a particular ritual dance music used by the people of central Doggerland to stimulate the growth of onions. A group of eight to twelve musicians playing the traditional 'Wynwynkorn' (a horn created from the stalk of a mature, flower-bearing onion plant, as can be seen in the photo) would cycle through various musical 'settings' while the listeners engaged in a communal dance. This may seem to be yet another empty ritual rooted in superstition (like the Celtic/Brittonic ritual of throwing elaborate, newly-made handicrafts into rivers as an offering to imagined 'gods'), but was in fact a practical and effective technique that consistently resulted in onions of impressive girth. The Doggic culture was apparently knowledgeable about something that modern civilisation has only recently discovered: the role of sound in the growth process of – and even communication between – different forms of plant life. Some research related to this topic has been submitted by Dr. Monica Gagliano of the University of Western Australia to the scientific journal 'Trends In Plant Science' (June 2012, Vol. 17, Issue 6), wherein she describes the click-like sounds emitted by certain members of the nightshade family, and demonstrates a marked effect on growth in response to externally-generated sounds in a corresponding frequency range. Similarly, the frequencies and patterns created by the Doggish onion horn players would convey, in onion-terms, a message that the environment was entirely safe and that accelerated growth was advantageous (in other words, they were misleading the onions into a false sense of security so they'd be bigger when it came time to dismember & consume them). The dance component of the ritual didn't serve any particular purpose: it was simply that the Doggerlanders, constantly wiggling their hips as a result of their peculiar method of communication, were pretty much dancing all the time anyways.

Note: This is a distinctly modern adaptation of a historical musical form. However, a genuine 'Wynwynkorn' was used to create the entire recording.