SEMI SILENT

The piano is an anti-nomadic instrument. It is often sitting in the same room for decades surviving several generations of a family, silently (or not) witnessing their histories. In interaction with the room-climate the piano is slowly changing over the decades. It is a kind of time-travel-instrument shaped by time and space. Sound artists Eva Poepplein and Janko Hanushevsky (aka Merzouga) played and recorded three aged pianos inside their rooms. They are not pianists and used the pianos as sound-generators. In interviews they unearthed as much of the pianos’ histories and made field-recordings of the rooms and the immediate space around them (the garden, the street). The stories they collected inspired the composition’s three movements, one dedicated to each of the pianos.

Maria Balabaş propune un show conceput ca o emisiune de radio live, cu publicul alături. Tema aleasă este muzica pentru ansambluri vocale compusă şi interpretată în România. Este un teritoriu destul de ascuns, accesul fiind oprit de lipsa înregistrărilor şi a informaţiilor prea numeroase vizavi de activitatea compozitorilor, dar şi de o anumită percepţie nefavorabilă care include prezumţia de festivism sau un naţionalism prea explicit. Maria Balabaş face o selecţie personală şi propune spre ascultare piese emoţionale, care uimesc prin modernitatea limbajului sau a tematicii sau, care, dezvăluie pur şi simplu frumuseţea şi necesitatea cântului împreună.

Choirs and other voices a fost realizat în cadrul proiectului HER VOICE și prezentat publicului pe 20 octombrie 2017 la Teatrul Apollo 111.

În data de 25 ianuarie 2018 a încetat din viață istoricul și filosoful Neagu Djuvara. Avea 101 ani. Fotograful Cornel Brad, într-o ședință foto din toamna anului trecut, l-a făcut să cânte.

*

Cornel Brad este fotograf.

www.cornelbrad.com

Ulysses chose to „listen” to the sirens, therefore creating the possibility of being simultaneously active and attentive. A monstrous, overwhelming nature promised him the voices of all women past and those to come, the voices of mothers and daughters, voices of killers, women enemies hiding in the darkness of the unknown. The song of the sirens over the sea was meant to accompany Ulysses towards his death, and he wanted to hear it all. Voice understood as a medium for profound communication, as an expressive instrument, and as possibility for common resonance.

SONG OF THE SIRENS is part of the project HER VOICE, a project exploring women’s voice through sound, sound art, performance and artist status inquiries. HER VOICE is initiated by Anamaria Pravicencu (Jumătatea plină, Sâmbăta sonoră, SEMI SILENT) has received the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

LIVE at Euroradio Ars Acustica on the 17th of January 2018, powered by the European Broadcasting Union and Radio România Cultural.

Între înregistrările audio făcute pe parcursul timpului, aceasta are o semnificaţie anume. Poartă cu sine ultimul drum al unui om pe care l-am respectat. Când am început să înregistrez, a fost mai mult sub un impuls emoţional. Acum, înregistrarea aceasta o să-mi amintească mereu de tristeţea pe care am simţit-o conducând cortegiul regal.

Doina Patega, 96, lives in a small village west of Targu-Jiu. This mix, or "salad of words" as I like to call it, translates my perception as a stranger of a woman who moved me deeply. I found in her voice a beautiful expression of her energy: sometimes singing, sad, laughing, with a vocal timbre marked by time, but which allows at times the perception of the astonishing youth that resides in this young lady.

*

Baptiste Bohelay comes from Paris, France and has lived in Bucharest for over a year. A digital artist with a scientific background, his creations are diverse and fit into a large number of artistic fields. However, he keeps a particular affective relationship with sound, his root.

Doamna Sina are 63 de ani, n-a locuit niciodată la oraș, a învățat 8 clase, în schimb a avut câteva case, vaci nenumărate, un magazin, un tractor și trei copii – dintre care unul de care a trebuit să aibă grijă în mod special.

 

 

Maria Balabaș este jurnalistă și muziciană. Moderează emisiunea Dimineața crossover de la Radio România Cultural și a creat proiecte dedicate noilor forme de creație radiofonică (Generația sonoră). În 2014 a fost nominalizată la Prix Europa (Berlin) pentru documentarul Maria Tănase – Soundtrack urban pentru o divă. A inițiat grupuri muzicale precum Avant’n’Gard și Soare Staniol, inspirate de tehnicile de improvizație, muzica electronică, tehnici ale muzicii acustice. Creează instalații generate de interesul artistic pentru forma de memorie auditivă specifică înregistrărilor de teren.

 

*

Ms. Sina is 63 years old, has never lived in the city, went to school only up to the 8th grade, but instead she has owned several houses, countless cows, a shop, a tractor and three children – one of which she had to take special care of.

 

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.

We chatted with Svetlana Cârstean in a café and we fought with the voices around us. Because she has a voice as delicate as her stature, but much stronger in writing. As she was told at the launch of the first volume of poems, Floarea de Menghină [The Vice Flower], Cartea Românească Publishing, 2008. From journalism, journal writing, poetry, to the hosting of the Wednesday Intersections talks, Svetlana Cârstean has changed many voices and continues to change them.

*

Diana Voinea works as a copywriter. Since two years she walks with a recorder in her bag and records the sounds of the city. About all she recorded in a year she has used on an ambient field recording album. She listens to a few podcasts and is up to one. Her interest is in the memory of voices and in stories created with sounds.

Cosmina Morosan is 28 years old. She has two volumes of poetry published, AgesexlocationPLS at Vinea Publishing House in 2006 and Beatitudine - Political Essay at Nemira Publishing House in 2017; she studies for her PhD the Schizoanalysis of performative posthuman literature; she does trap beats and performs under the name of Morfolina. We met in a bar with The Smiths playing in the background, a ping-pong game and trams messing up with our conversation. She took it as a sign that music is following her, and rhythm is created everywhere

Angela Marinescu is 76 years old and still writes. She wants to resume her original family name - Marcovici, and she stays up to date with the new poetry.

"You should know I don't know how to talk, I'm not at all charming."

I visited her and we talked for more than two hours in a quiet corner of Diham. About poetry and recurrent illness, about the beauty of insanity, about what it means to write, although recognition is hard to come by.

It is almost 50 years since her first volume of poetry, Blue blood, and in 2015 her complete works - "Subpoetry" (Charmides publishing house) were launched. She recently received the George Bacovia National Poetry Prize.

*

Diana Voinea works as a copywriter. Since two years she walks with a recorder in her bag and records the sounds of the city. About all she recorded in a year she has used on an ambient field recording album. She listens to a few podcasts and is up to one. Her interest is in the memory of voices and in stories created with sounds.