Über Geräusche die Welt deuten

Radio

Wissenschaftler, Soundscape-Komponistinnen und Lärm-Aktivisten kämpfen gegen den Krach von Windfarmen, frönen dem Sound-Tourismus und fragen sich selbstkritisch: Sind wir in der Wissenschaftswelt total im Off? Diskussionen und Streitgespräche an einer Konferenz auf dem finnischen Nationalberg Koli. Eine Sendung von Thomas Burkhalter. Ausgestrahlt am 5.9.2010 im Bayerischen Rundfunk, Zündfunk Generator.

Die Forschungsdisziplin «Akustische Ökologie» beobachtet die Welt übers Ohr. Sie fragt, wie unsere akustische Umwelt unser Leben mit prägt. «Soundscape» ist ein zentraler Begriff in diesem Forschungszweig. Soundscape – also Klanglandschaft – beschreibt die akustische «Hülle» aus Lärm, Naturgeräuschen und Musik, die uns Menschen umgibt. Begründet wurde die Soundscape-Forschung Ende der 1960er Jahre vom World Soundscape Project, einer Initiative und Forschungsgruppe von Murray Schafer in Kanada. Schafer und seine Forschungsassistenten Barry Truax, Hildegard Westerkamp, Peter Huse, Bruce Davis und Howard Broomfield zogen mit Aufnahmegeräten und Spezialmikrophonen los und fingen die verschiedenen Lärm- und Geräuschquellen von Vancouver ein. Die Klänge verarbeiteten sie dann zu einer akustischen Kollage: «The Vancouver Soundscape» heisst ihre Komposition, die heute Kultstatus geniesst.

An einer Konferenz im finnischen Koli sind über 100 Wissenschaftler angereist. Murray Schafer und Barry Truax gehören hier bereits der älteren Generation an. Sie bevorzugen archaische Klänge und stille Landschaften. Die jüngeren Forscher hingegen haben sich den lauten Städten zugewandt. Diese beiden «Schulen» sind sich auf der Konferenz nicht immer einig. Wann sind Soundscape-Kompositionen einfach nur Sound-Safaris? Wann muss man ihnen vorwerfen, «akustischen Orientalimus» zu betreiben, nicht-westliche Länder wie beispielsweise Indien oder Ägypten über ein paar wenige stereotype Klänge abzubilden? So lauten einige der Streitfragen.

In der Sendung von Thomas Burkhalter diskutieren die renommierten Wissenschaftler und Soundscape-Komponisten Murray Schafer, Steven Feld, Charles Hirschkind, Hildegard Westerkamp, Bruce Johnson, Anahid Kassabian, Helmi Järviluoma und Seth Ayyaz.

Thomas Burkhalter und Hildegard Westerkamp (photo: Carlos Augusto).

Trackliste

1. Seilbahn
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

2. Vogel im Wald
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

3. Taga O Daga
Mazen Kerbaj
Brt Vrt Zrt Krt (Al Maslakh)

4. Laura singt
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

5. Soundwalk
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

6. Marimba Spiritual (For Marimba Solo With Three Percussionists)
Evelyn Glennie
Evelyn Glennie: Her Greatest Hits (RCA Victor)

7. Rum-Reggata Flensburg
Johannes Müske
Soundscape Komposition (Unpublished)

8. Flensburger Hafen
Johannes Müske
Soundscape Komposition (Unpublished)

9. Keafo, morning
Steven Feld
Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea
(EarthEar)

10. Seyak, butcherbird
Steven Feld
Rainforest Soundwalks: Ambiences of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea
(EarthEar)

11. Nauvo Church Bells with Birds
Acoustic Environment in Change (Archive of Folk Tradition, UTA)

12. Sunday Morning
Acoustic Environment in Change (Archive of Folk Tradition, UTA)

13. Winter Images
Acoustic Environment in Change (Archive of Folk Tradition, UTA)

14. The Train
Acoustic Environment in Change (Archive of Folk Tradition, UTA)

15. Rauschen im Hotel
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

16. The Bird Gost at the Zaouia
Seth Ayyaz
Unpublished

17. Cassette Sermon by Cheikh Kishk
From Book: Hirschkind, Charles. 2006. The Ethical Soundscape – Cassette Sermons and Islamic Counterpublics, New York: Columbia University Press

18. CW Tapes
Raed Yassin
Unpublished

19: Music of Horns and Whistles
The World Souncscape Project
The Vancouver Soundscape 1997
Free Download: http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/excerpts/Vanscape5.mp3

20. Into the Labyrinth
Hildegard Westerkamp
Into India: A Composer’s Journey (Earsay Productions)

21. Waking in Nima
Steven Feld
Waking in Nima (VoxLox)

22. The Bird Gost at the Zaouia
Seth Ayyaz
Unpublished

23. Women’s Ceremonial Iwo
Bosavi Musicians
Bosavi: Rainforest Music from Papau New Guinea (Smithsonian Folkways)

24. Blblb Flblb
Mazen Kerbaj
Brt Vrt Zrt Krt (Al Maslakh)

25. Mort Aux Vache, Track 2
Tarek Atoui
Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat)

26. 26 Basslines
Benga
Diary of an Afro Warrior (Tempa)

27. Bach
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

28. Vogel 2
Thomas Burkhalter, Norient
Feldaufnahmen Mount Koli (Unpublished)

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Published on November 27, 2010

Last updated on April 09, 2024

Topics

Ethnomusicology

Soundscape

Listening

Ecology

All Topics

print as pdf

Versatile Scales and Textures

Review

by Thomas Burkhalter

«Wanbani»: The new CD of Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler is the remarkable result of a long-standing collaboration.

Since 2002, Palestinian Kamilya Jubran and Bernese Werner Hasler have been experimenting in-between Arabian music, jazz and electronica. On their second release together «Wanabni», Jubran sings across Arabian quarter tone heights (Maqam), full tone scales and overtone series, while Hasler plays his trumpet with versatile sound textures.The two of them add an oud-lute, manipulated noise-samples and minimalistic electronica and create an organic and very personal music.

On one hand the music functions similarly to Arab Tarab-music: in the title track «Wanabni» Jubran and Hasler develop step by step their tonal materials and create a long, gradually intensifying arc of suspense. When Hasler interacts freely with the singing of Jubran, «Wanabni» sounds completely like jazz. Eventually we hear electronically manipulated sounds: minimalistic synthesizer melodies and manipulated Oud- and song-samples, that support the track, though without disturbing the flow.

Kamilya Jubran and Werner Hasler communicate from their respective canon of their original musical genres. They play with this canon and tantalise it. Though they never completely break the connections. It’s an impressive long-term project.

The CD

Kamilya Jubran & Werner Hasler: Wanabni (Zig-Zag Territoires / Musicora )

CDs and Documentary Film

→ Kamilya Jubran & Werner Hasler, Ghareeba, 2002
→ Telling Strings, documentary film on Kamilya Jubran, from Anne-Marie Haller.

Video of the Cover Tune of 2002 CD Ghareeba

Scientific Work

Thomas Burkhalter, Christoph Jacke and Sandra Passaro are currently working on a scientific article about the cover track «Wanabni».

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Published on December 16, 2010

Last updated on April 29, 2024

Topics

Experiment

Music Production

Tradition

All Topics

print as pdf

An Infinitely Crazy World

Interview

by Thomas Burkhalter

The Swiss-Italian musician and composer Paed Conca and Lebanese artist Raed Yassin have been working together since 2005 as Duo Praed. The two of them have released their second CD Made in Japan.

Praed, the duo of Bernese Paed Conca and Lebanese Raed Yassin lures the curious listener into a mazy media-carousel. On their second release Made in Japan (Annihaya), pop sounds meet experimental techniques. Acoustic offerings from yesteray are presented today: Raed Yassin sings over a sample of Egyptian pop-star Mahmoud El Husseini, mimes the solo entertainer on keyboard and synthesizer, while a bathroom-pipe is bursting. Japanese voices, screaming, rifle volley and dub-grooves are interlaced. Sounds and rhythms circle boundlessly, just like the carousel at the fun fair – they also use those dusty nostalgic acoustic patterns: tacky cheapo sounds and pounding drums draw endless circles and aim nowhere. All these sounds are put into a grinder and are processed with techniques of experimental music: primed double- and E-bass, varying playing techniques on the clarinet and scratches from record players and tape-recorders. It is a commentary about the randomness, oppositeness and purposelessness of the acoustic materials that are surrounding us. A plead for an infinite, crazy and open world.

Interview with Paed Conca

[Thomas Burkhalter]: Paed Conca, you work with your projects more abroad than in Switzerland. Where have you been lately?

[Paed Conca]: I play in the internationally well-connected scene of free improvised music, but I also compose from contemporary to chamber music. The last few months I performed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Norway, plus every now and then also in Japan and Lebanon.

[TB]: Today you live half of the time in Beirut. How come?

[PC]: Switzerland is too small if you want to live from free improvised or experimental music. But I also don’t want to limit myself to Switzerland. I am curious. The music scene in Beirut works much closer with other art fields: actors, artists, graphic-designers. I find this extremely enriching. I’ve been working in a duo with Raed Yassin for five years: I like his experiments with local popular culture. Such unobstructed handling of popular culture is more and more difficult to find amongst European musicians and listeners of experimental music.

[TB]: Indeed on your new CD Made in Japan, the Duo creates peculiar musical worlds. What are we hearing?

[PC]: We pull many things through the grinder: audio tracks of old Egyptian or Japanese movies, speeches of Arabian dictators, propaganda music, field recordings from the Lebanese civil war, and many other things. As a fairly new thing we also process rhythms, sounds and voices from Arabian popular music. Especially the Dabké-wedding musicians from Syria and Lebanon as well as the Chaabi-street-stars from Egypt did it for us. We processed their trashy-kitschy sounds and ornaments with our experimental approach – with much love for small details. I prime my E-bass with various materials and play clarinet with special techniques. Raed Yassin mimes the solo entertainer on the synthesizer or manipulates pop sounds on the record player or tape recorder. It is experimental music that sounds like pop music. These days, people even dance to our music. However it remains crazy and infinite, that’s why I feel so happy in it.

[TB]: All those acoustic materials that you process: do they stand for anything political?

[PC]: We do play in our music and in our performances with political indicators. For example we manipulate the sound aesthetics of various Lebanese parties and put them ironically into new contexts. Raed Yassin likes to wear on stage the typical mirror-sunglasses of the Christian right radical party leaders, while playing the music of Shiites and Sunnites on his synthesizer. Basically, with our music, we plea for politics of openness: everybody shall be able to create his/her world however they think is right.

[TB]: How does this position manifest itself relating to Switzerland?

[PC]: Europe with its isolation and paranoia of everything and everybody scares me. I am a very political person. I want to take position, sometimes directly, other times indirectly. Last year, in my music, film and paint project «Porta Chiusa», I critically dealt with the Swiss foreign policy. Each human shall be able to travel wherever (s)he wants to go. Raed Yassin has a Lebanese passport, as an artist it is nearly impossible to live like this. I constantly keep writing invitations and visa-applications for him, in order to be able to meet and play concerts as Duo Praed. Somehow, also this is reflected in the music of Praed: though playful, hidden and abundant of delight.

Concert Extracts from Reitschule Bern

Norient spoke to Praed in the context of the project Sonic Traces: From Switzerland.

Biography

Dr. Thomas Burkhalter is an anthropologist/ethnomusicologist, AV-artist, and writer from Bern (Switzerland). He is the founder and director of Norient and the Norient Festival (NF), co-directed AV-performances and documentary films (e.g. «Contradict», Berner Filmpreis 2020 + Al-Jazeera Witness), and is the author and co-editor of several books (e.g., «Local Music Scenes and Globalization: Transnational Platforms in Beirut», Routledge, «The Arab Avant Garde: Musical Innovation in the Middle East», Wesleyan University Press). He teaches regularly at universities, and runs workshops for arts institutions. Since 2022 he produces the Norient Mixtape for Swiss National Radio SRF3. Currently, he is working on his new music duo «Melodies In My Head», and on the podcast series «Long Take: Life as an Artist». Follow him on Instagram, Research Gate, Academia.edu, Bandcamp, Spotify, or Meta.

Published on November 19, 2010

Last updated on June 03, 2021

Topics

Experiment

Migration

Music Business

All Topics

Special

Sonic Traces: From Switzerland

print as pdf