«You Are Here!» overcomes social distancing through sound. The five podcasts are experimental remixes, based on spontaneous conversations and improvisations that took place in September 2020. A brief look at their creation.

The podcast series «You Are Here!» is a musical position statement. Where are we right now? An intentionally ambiguous question. Where are we socially? Artistically? With our minds? How do we (re)connect musically? What do we want to play? What sounds do we need? Should we be political? Dreamy? Or rather abstract? And who is «we»? In five intense encounters, eight musicians and thirteen authors answer these questions, musically and verbally.

These podcasts came together in two steps: Over four days in September 2020, trumpet player Paul Hübner met two artists at a time in a pop-up radio studio in a botanical garden in Frankfurt. Without any rehearsal or preparation – and without knowing each other previously – they played and talked together live. The audience strolled through the garden, equipped with VHF radios, listening to the show.

In a second step composer Hannes Seidl remixed and condensed the improvisations and conversations into experimental audio collages. The result is a five-part podcast series that acoustically overcomes the enforced distancing of the pandemic – and will hopefully stimulate thoughts for the future.

Quotes from the Podcast

«Fremd-Aushalten ist eine der wesentlichen antifaschistischen Übungen, die wir gerade brauchen. Also je fremder die Kunst, desto offener die Münder. Es wäre im Moment verdammt angesagt, dass es ganz viel komische Musik gibt.»
Christoph Ogiermann 

«It is a scary time right now. It feels like the divisions in society are only getting broader, like an earthquake is happening. I think music is a binding force and has this power to say: We are all together.»
Liz Kosack

»Ich finde Musik sollte nicht zu emotional sein, sondern abstrakt bleiben.»
Naoko Kikuchi

«We still have so many issues to resolve in this world in order to live better. We are not able to failure. Now, we feel this failure and actually we are late in resolving big issues.»
Kamilya Jubran

«The fun and games are over for now. With global warming in the 11^th hour, the world is desperate for real solutions and effective policies. This must be reflected in all critical art today.»
Steven Kazuo Takasugi

«I breathe the political winds through the pipes of the Internet, which at times seem like straws or plastictubes which are so toxic, they even can’t be recycled. »
Chaya Czernowin

«Es ist leicht gesagt, dass ‹wir› an einem kritischen Punkt stehen. So lange es mir –und vielen anderen von ‹uns› –nicht gelingt, all das als Teil des eigenen Ortes und der eigenen Gegenwart aufzufassen, wird zu wenig passieren.»
Christian Grüny

«Was für eine Kunst brauchen wir? Was für eine Musik? Eine, die provoziert, eine, die bestätigt, die vorbildlich ist und uns vorlebt, wie es besser gehen kann? Eine Kunst des Alltags, eine der ganz großen Fragen, oder eine verträumte? Was für Musik? Eine, die die ganze Ungerechtigkeit rausschreit, Musik zu der man tanzen und für den Moment alles andere vergessen kann oder Musik, die Klangforschung betreibt?»
Hannes Seidl

Listen to the Podcast