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The soundtrack is intended to be listened to with headphones.
As Time Machine was intended to translate the essential qualities of whirling, through technology, I felt the sound  component  of the experience was a crucial element.  I chose to use binaural sound recording microphones. A step beyond stereo, these microphones are meant to mimic sound as the human ear encounters it. Binaural sound is a technique achieved by using two small microphones placed into the ear, or embedded in ear shaped molds on a sculpted human head. With playback through headphones, the quality of the binaurally recorded acoustics is very similar to how the ear customarily perceives local sounds in space. It differs from conventional stereo recordings, as it takes into account the travel of sound waves around the shape of the human head. This created different sound levels and timing between the left and right ears. To be effective binaural sound recordings need to be listened to with headphones, as the subtle sound time and space distinctions are lost when projected into the open air. The binaural microphones were plugged into a digital recording device that was small enough to hold as I whirled. All but one of the 8 sound layers used in the final composition were recorded binaurally while whirling. One of the interesting results of this process was the continuous soft sound of the leather prayer slippers scuffing the floor as I whirled to record each sound. This became a subtle undercurrent in all of the recordings, building or falling depending upon the number of sound layers.

Several of the sound elements repeated for the duration of the recording, including the sound of the word Allah, which took on the character of a heartbeat. Two slightly different versions of the chant were captured at close range to accentuate the temporal sound qualities. What appeared to be an electronic drone were in fact instances of  wind harp. The sung Illahi, a traditional Sufi hymn, was a recording of Seemi Ghazi, a professor at the University of British Columbia, and a teacher in the Rifai Marufi Order. The other voice recordings were executed during an impromptu zikr with Mira’s father, Raqib Brian Burke, who is also a teacher within the Rifai Marufi and Mevlevi Orders. He played a Kurdish Daf drum during the zikr. The final layer, acting as a constant mechanical pulse, was the sound of an old skipping 78 rpm record playing on an antique suitcase phonograph. The end of the record has a built in loop, which kept bringing the needle back to skip again and again creating a simple rhythm. I had made this recording a year previously, and only decided to include it at the last minute. It was a mono sample that in the finished composition panned from right to left on each beat to artificially reproduce a sense of movement.
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