im FLUSS
GERÄUSCHKULISSE
4 electroacoustic concerts in stereo and surround / October 26, 2024
What is the essence of the river? What does it connect? What connects humans to it? And how can we make the often invisible relationships between humans and nature acoustically tangible? In a musical soirée, five artists present their personal, artistic, and partly scientifically inspired approaches to the phenomenon of the river. These works, diverse in form, approach, and means of expression—some created specifically for electroacoustic surround concerts—invite the audience to immerse themselves in the sonic inventory RIVER: Whether as a cross-border object, as a historical witness to a former military region, as a reflection of social movements and decisions, or as a critical reinterpretation of Smetana’s Moldau. After each piece, there will be an open audience discussion with the attending artists.
Works individually + Running Order
Elbe-Labe as Sonic Hyperobject
Polina Khatsenka,
18:00
The Ambisonic intro thematizes the river as a transcending hyperobject that surpasses national identities and individual perceptions. With 15 sound artists from the Czech Republic and Germany who simultaneously made recordings along the Elbe, Khatsenka creates a space-time penetrating composition that becomes individually perceptible through the movement of the audience.
Nuclear Gate: Mimoň (Ploučnice)
Grit Ruhland & Konrad Behr
19:00
The composition acoustically portrays the military region of Ralsko from the perspective of the water and follows its path from the uranium mining area under remediation to the former military training ground, with the Ploučnice river at the center. Through a mixture of hydrophone and field recordings, a sound collage emerges that makes audible the tension between idyll and nuclear threat.
Stream
Leon Goltermann
19:30
The work explores abstract qualities of the river and creates soundscapes without classical instruments or real river recordings, reflecting mass, flow, and division. Rivers appear in Goltermann’s piece as both relaxing and threatening phenomena and are examined in terms of their social role. The fixed media composition uses a 32.2-channel surround system to make these approaches acoustically tangible.
The Moldau – A State of Recording
La Pesch
20:00
Inspired by Smetana’s symphonic poem, La Pesch embarks on an acoustic journey with her dog from the source streams to the mouth of the Moldau. She confronts the romantic idyll of the original with the reality of a changing river. Between naturalistic field recordings and artistic interpretations, a multilayered portrait emerges – of the river? Of her? Of a condition?