SEMI SILENT

MAYBE NOTHING. An environmental thriller by Jeanne Debarsy, 2023_____What happened? / We don't know exactly / Of course, there are rumors and echoes / But they are perhaps only reminiscences / Time and space seem out of tune / Behaviors have also changed / But still, the Danube doesn’t stop flowing._____The translation of a precise feeling that cradled the 10-day residency in the small village of Port Cetate, in Romania: a strange feeling of the end of the world, with a historically low water level that prevented navigation on the Danube, a very prevalent animal kingdom, few humans, the impression of evolving either in the past or in the future but certainly not in the present._____Sound piece composed with recordings made during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at Port Cetate, Dolj county, Romania, in September 2022._____Jeanne Debarsy (b. 1986) is a sound artist based in Belgium where she studied to become a sound engineer. She works in various domains of sound and collaborates with many artists in cinema, radio, music, and various arts. She is particularly passionate about radio media because it gives her freedom of action and expression precious to her eyes. She continues to develop her own sound language to refine her personal research and to explore the fields of performance and installation._____Recordings, composition and mixing by Jeanne Debarsy for SEMI SILENT._____Voices: Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Lloyd Dunn, Sillyconductor, pablo sanz, Veronika Svobodová._____Co-produced by Babelfish, 2023.

NEST by Abby Lee Tee, 2022

The sounds of privileged life in a small, cosy flat while a crisis after another exacerbating in the outside world. Very close encounters with gurgling stomachs, diligent small critters, dishwashers, washing machines, moka pots, tea kettles and a hailstorm on the other side of the windows.

Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES 2022.

Abby Lee Tee is an austrian musician, sound designer & field recordist. His fascination for the divisions and crossovers between noise and music, as well as nature and culture, can be seen in his work with installations, sound-walks, sound design for theatre and audiovisual projects, as well as records on labels such as Shash, Czaszka, Never Anything, Vertical Music, Falt, Dinzu Artefacts and Accidental. Since 2020, he’s researching beavers and their vocalizations, winning the “Sound of the Year” Awards in the category “Best Naturally Occuring Sound” as well as the “Boughton Fieldcraft” Award by the Wildlife Sound Recording Society.

https://abbyleetee.com

Recordings and composition by Abby Lee Tee for SEMI SILENT.

Mix & Mastering by Christian Ghahremanian

Ceaușescu's Teeth. A biting collection of sounds from profound Romania (Romanian).

Author: Sillyconductor, 2015

“Related to God”: voice memos as a documenting obsession

Some years ago, my then very young daughter had a funny but pertinent question: was Ceaușescu’s dentist too scared of the dictator to fix his teeth? At that time I was traveling a lot around the country and, as it happens, when you travel by taxi, bus, train or even elevator, people tend to talk to you. I always had my phone ready to record, since I was ready to sacrifice sound quality for the sake of not missing the moment. I recorded for two years, between 2013 and 2015, whatever I found interesting, overbearing, fun or infuriating. Kids, taxi drivers, radios, friends, birds, toilets, they all somehow melted in a collage that had God and family as recurring themes and tells a story that is just as intrusive and fear-driven as Ceaușescu’s dentist.

Sound composition originally presented during Sâmbăta Sonoră in June 2015 at ODD, Bucharest.

Photo: Nicu Ilfoveanu, 2021

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Sillyconductor is a sound artist from Bucharest. He performs, writes music for theatre, games, or films, builds sound installations or instruments inspired by science and humour. Sometimes he entertains or educates kids with his Sgomot series of sound workshops.

Recording, editing, and mixing by Sillyconductor.

I started with a recording made in the garden with our little boy. We were getting ready to go to Bucharest, so we planted a few more things and we said goodbye. “The garden looks like our life: the things are mixed, have their own calendars, there are no 3 rows alike” (Vlad). It is a continuum.

While listening to the recording, I made peace with this space filled with different plants, some eatable, others not. Even if this garden asks for more time and soul than I am ready to give, it has a huge contribution not only to our daily food, but to our imaginary.

I dedicate this composition to Vlad, my husband, and to Bogdan, our son (both “words creators”!), and to our garden for the delicious things it gave to our stomachs and ears.

Maria Balabaș

Producer’s note: Maria Balabaș moved to the countryside a few years ago, though she has the heart of a city person.

Măr din măr translates as “apple from the apple tree,” but it also recalls the use of metonymy in the folkloric Romanian songs.

Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of the 2021 edition of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES.

Photo: Nicu Ilfoveanu

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Maria Balabaș is a journalist and musician. She is the host of the Dimineața crossover show (Morning Crossover) from Radio România Cultural and has created projects devoted to new forms of radio creation (Generația sonoră/Sound Generation). In 2014 she was nominated for Prix Europa (Berlin) for the documentary Maria Tănase – Urban Soundtrack for a Diva. She initiated musical groups such as Avant’n’Gard and Soare Staniol, inspired by improvisational techniques, electronic music, acoustic music. Creates installations generated by the artistic interest in the form of field-specific auditory memory.

Recording, editing, and mixing by Maria Balabaș for SEMI SILENT.

There's a garden between the buildings where I live. At first it was probably planned and landscaped. Then the plants (largely bushy, ornamental) grew naturally wild. I guess someone threw an apple core out the window one day. A shy apple tree has grown, nothing more than a handful of twigs. This year it bore fruit: four apples. Usually, not much comes out of apple seeds. Apparently this time it has. It usually takes between five and twelve years for the apple tree sprung from seed to bear fruit. 'Applecore' is the story of the apple seed that sprouted in a wild garden between buildings in Berlin.

Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of the 2021 edition of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES.

Photo: Nicu Ilfoveanu

Cosmin Nicolae is an anti-disciplinary artist working with image, sound, text to produce works of intimate reflection at the intersection of autoethnography, psychogeography and possible futures. Opening the door on Hessle Audio over a decade ago - an outlet that has gone on to become a defining voice within electronic music in the 21st Century, Nicolae’s list of affiliations reads like a who’s who of top tier contemporary music record labels. Cosmin Nicolae’s work glides between music, film, hyperstitional theory fiction and a mix of media that formulate peripheral points of view. Lives and works in Berlin.

cosminnicolae.com

Recording, editing, and mixing by Cosmin Nicolae for SEMI SILENT.

Oedaadaao is a title without registered meaning or definition… the choice of these letters represents the ongoing journey through Enescu’s Oedipus and Tzara’s sound poetry both of which have their origins within the local area.

How to approach a new place? And what to take home from it?

The rural area of Tescani in Romanian Moldavia is characterized by reverberating sounds waving between hills, farming, and plenty of dogs of course. Up the hill on the edge of the village lies a small museum in honor of the Romanian composer George Enescu. A mansion with its own little forest. But the grandeur of the past shows cracks. Humidity sneaks up the walls. Red, aristocratic patterned carpet hosts historic notes, furniture, and instruments. Mice ate the hammer felt of the piano – the piano on which Enescu finished his opera Oedipe. Today it is untouchable. Packs of visitors come in coaches, have a quick look, bath in some mellow notes, and climb their vehicle again to take off. What is conserved along the way?

The piece follows, questions, deconstructs, and reconstructs the process of conservation. It starts a conversation with the ghosts of the past. Open exploration, improvisation, and coincidences play a major role in the piece as most of it is composed by movement in space on-location and not by layering tracks. It drifts intuitively between scenes, thoughts, and impressions. Essayistically, it weaves together reoccurring themes in a meandering way that invites listeners to get lost in the imagination of a place.

What is the difference between talking with and talking about nonhuman animals?

Outtakes of the project Syntopia:Bega (by Andreea Săsăran & Abby Lee Tee), recorded in July 2021 while collecting material for an audiovisual essay about the widely ramified river and canal system Bega in Timișoara, coming across numerous hidden places where frogs and their vocal expressions were dominating the soundscape – above and below the surface of the water.

Authors: Anamaria Pravicencu & V. Leac, 2020