| Les
séries sonores
70 to 80 minutes of sound–shots,
ambient sounds, musique d´ameublement, acoustic wallpaper for
your aural interior decoration, CDs which transform your living room
into a mountain meadow, a beach, or summer in the south of France, atmospheric
background music for dinner, for cuddling or just about any situation.The
CDs cost € 12.80 each – with a 20% discount if you order
the whole series.
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Nightingale
– Les séries sonores 1
A recording of a nightingale in a Berlin backyard, mostly a solo,
performance, occasionally a duet. The untiring song is a sure
sign that the long gray winter is finally over. |
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Bürgerablage
– Les séries sonores 2
2003 was a spectacular summer, and the beaches were overcrowded.
Children splash around in the water, shrieking in an attempt to
gain the attention of their parents, who are lying lazily in the
sun. "Bürgerablage" is the name of a popular beach
on the river Havel in Spandau, a district of Berlin. |
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Almrauschen
– Les séries sonores 3
The bells of grazing cows, beetles buzzing, flies, crickets, a quietly
babbling stream, a child playing far in the background, the occasional
whistle of a glider, the remote roar of a jet fighter – the
sound of silence at 2000 meters in the Tyrolean Alps. |
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Summer
– Les séries sonores 4
Cicadas in the south of France in a dialogue with the hot summer
wind, recorded near St. Remy de Provence. Forget the sun tan studio
- recover and relax by simply closing your eyes. |
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Hadra
– Les séries sonores 5
Cairo in the summer of 1999. Devotees of the Islamic Sufi tradition
assemble in the Town of the Dead to loose their conscious self in
a revolving dance performed to minimalist, repetitive trance music.
A recording of the whole ritual, from the first announcements of
the musicians to the way home from the necropolis. |
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Ostseerauschen
(the murmur of the Baltic Sea) – Les séries sonores
6
Without a doubt -- the classic:
80 minutes of the murmur of waves on a gravel beach near Warnemünde
on a day with moderately rough seas. From time to time a couple
of strollers or a border patrol helicopter pass by, but otherwise
only the constant rhythm of the waves, subtly different every time.
Sedative! |
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Canadian
Spring – Les séries sonores 7
Although the Canadian woods
are much bigger than those of Central Europe, they are not as densely
populated with songbirds. Inbetween the individual calls of the
various residents of the woods and the beaver lakes on this recording,
you can hear the immense expanse and silence of the Canadian wilderness. |
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Leittoenen
2 – Les séries sonores 8
The trio transalpin & guests
organized an ear-intoxicating performance on the 7th of September
in the shell of the subway station Potsdamer Platz. An Alpenhorn
duo, cries of a Muezzin, Bulgarian overtone songs, German and East
European folk songs (among others) tested the resonance of a mile-long
concrete tube. An exceptional listening experience! |
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Easy-care
warm wash - Les séries sonores 9
Another classic in our series:
An 80-minute washing program recorded by a microphone practically
inside the drum of the washing machine. There are people who maintain
that the regular gurgling and purring sounds rock children to sleep,
because it reminds them of their prenatal acoustic world. |
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Grunewald
- Les séries sonores 10
The bird´s concert in
the Grunewald Forest, recorded from 5.50 to 7.00 AM on Easter Sunday.
No cars, just a plane from time to time. Otherwise it is the hour
of the birds – between dawn and sunrise. |
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Rudower
See - Les séries sonores 11
A mild and gentle lapping of
the waves of the Rudower Lake – by the wayside between Berlin
and Hamburg, an unspoiled biotope near the Elbe River. The wind
in the trees, the song of the just returned migratory birds –
an idyll! |
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Dannewalder
Mühle - Les séries sonores 12
„The mill clacks on the
roaring brook“ – it doesn´t clack in Dannenwalde,
between Pritzwalk and Kyritz, but in it´s imperturbable regularity
the mill wheel contrasts with the always varying play of the brook
– both relaxing and inpiring! |
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A
kind of order that produces patterns - Les séries sonores
13
A radio essay to music by Morton
Feldman, textured prayerwheel-like as a Persian carpet, ostinato
language patterns circle around the question of how without logical
contradictions nothing can be thought or said, the state of purest
quasi-ecstatic self-oblivion. With Christof Düro as speaker.
Production of the Bavarian Radio 1994. |
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Friday
prayers - Les séries sonores 14
Every Friday afternoon so many
believers come to the Al Aksha mosque in Cairo that even the streets
around about have to be closed. The noise of the city ceases for
a few minutes. As a continuation and reinforcement of the worship,
a cafè offers meditative music while in the nearby lanes
everyday life takes its course. |
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Hörndlinger
Graben (The Hörndling Trench) - Les séries sonores 15
The Hörndlinger Graben
is a solitary valley in the high mountains of the Tirolean Alps
through which small streams of crystal-clear fresh water constantly
splash and gurgle their way while high above in the distance the
wind sometimes whistles and drones. |
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Thunder
Storm in Kärnten - Les séries sonores 16
Summer 2005 in Kärnten,
Austria. A year in which more storms and lightning strikes were
recorded than ever before since records started. One of these storms
is documented by this recording. From the first distant rumbles
of thunder the storm moves right overhead and recedes into silence.
The drama of nature in eighty minutes. |
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Cracow
starlings - Les séries sonores 17
Sometimes thousands of starlings
gather in the park in Cracow, occupy all the branches of the trees
that then seem to bear black leaves. A strange vehicle driven by
the municipal gardeners arrives, scaring off the starlings with
a loud bang- while after a short pause the swallows orbit in search
of insects. |
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Marktkauf
- Les séries sonores 18
Marktkauf is a large supermarket
in whose extended hall dozens of small loudspeakers put customers
with their shopping carts in a good mood. Mothers comfort whining
children, old couples confer about the Sunday roast, salesgirls
chatter about the latest gossip. |
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Suhum
St. Cecilia Choir - Les séries sonores 19
The St. Cecilia church choir
in the middle of Ghana have sewn new clothes for themselves- and
all the choirs from the surrounding villages have been invited on
the one hand to celebrate a Cathholic mass, on the other to sing
together afterwards and collect donations. This recording concentrates
solely on the musical parts of both the divine service as well as
the ensuing fundraising. |
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Parisiana
Club Cairo - Les séries sonores 20
The Parisiana Club in Gizeh
street in Cairo doesn’t open its doors till midnight. After
a few warm-up groups, towards three thirty in the morning the belly-dancer
Luzy walks onto the stage to the accompaniment of twenty musicians.
Atmosphere and noise in the club reach a climax and the wonderbras
of the dancers are stuffed with banknotes. |
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Morning,
Darling - Les séries sonores 21
Every morning half dreaming,
half sleeping our little darling babbles away. He can't speak yet,
it just sounds that way sometimes: Perhaps like an argument with
the jumping-jack or fairy tale time for the teddy bear. |
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Berlin
1999 - Les séries sonores 22
The nineties in Berlin were
the decade of club culture that bloomed in condemned houses and
old factories, disappeared and then started anew somewhere else.
Reason enough to take the mike around the corner for one night. |
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Anniversaire
- Les séries sonores 23
Canada, Montreal 2000. A private
birthday party in the French-speaking part of the town. Laughter,
conversation, a little singing, some eating and listening to music.
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Ponts de Montreal
- Les séries sonores 24
Montreal is an island, and you
can enter or leave it only by crossing one of the many bridges surrounding
it. Seen from above, they look like wires binding the island to
the shores. Some bridges are small, others are of an impressive
size; some are tiny, others quite massive; some are new, others
are already 100 years old. Mario Gauthier recorded, in various manners,
the sometime rythmic sounds of those bridges. |
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Prince
Pückler Park - Les séries sonores 25
Prince
Pückler built up this huge countryside park in the english
style at the beginning of the 19th century, nowadays half on German,
half on Polish ground. During a sunny day lots of tourists from
all countries are sitting in the café of the orangerie —
chatting and laughing, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. |
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Thy
Kiss of Divine Nature - Les séries sonores 26
“Thy
Kiss of Divine Nature” — the radio version of the film,
produced 2 years before the shooting began. Ulrich Ritter plays
the part of the author and film director, while the later plays
the interviewer and seems to be quite doubtful about the answers.
Cinema for the ears, the acoustic pendant to the DVD of the film
(In German). |
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The
Meaning of Not-Music - Les séries sonores 27
The basis
of this radio program was a talk about the aestethics of Not-Music,
that was held 1999 between Uli Aumüller and Helmut Lachenmann
in a Berlin street café. The associations and disgressions
were interrupted by the Nightingale of Ramersdorf (a well known
artist who wants money to stop his singing), who gave the discussion
another direction: What is not music? (In German) |
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Blessed
is your body - Les séries sonores 28
Sunday
evening 1995 in Hanoi. Long before the actual mass begins, the Catholic
church is overcrowded. Alternately, men and women sing rosaries
sounding like mandalas, that gives, as does the later service, a
strange and exotic colour. A mixture of Catholicism and Taoism.
At the end of this CD you will hear some recordings from the Buddhistic
pagoda just across the street opposite of the church. |
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Under
the Cherry Tree - Les séries sonores 29
What does
a cherry tree sound like? Wasps buzzing as they bite pieces from
the ripe fruit. Wind gripping the branches, louder even than birdsong.
The hum of a train passing through a distant valley. And occasional
dark whistles from the fir trees in a neighbouring forest. |
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Crickets
- Les séries sonores 30
A summer
meadow in the Southern Alps as evening approaches. In the background
a young farmer plays cops and robbers with his sons. When they go
indoors, silence spreads across the meadow, filled with the sound
of crickets. |
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The
Monkey House - Les séries sonores 31
Not the
sad sounds from within the monkey cages but the sounds and comments,
giggles and silliness of the visitors can be heard on this CD. Encounters
with near relatives from our point of view. |
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The
Early Bird - Les séries sonores 32
catches
the worm, so the proverb goes. But this CD captures sounds even
the lark misses. In the twilight before dawn the woods are still
silent… or are they? |
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Wind
turbine - Les séries sonores 33
They fill
the landscape, and are certainly not pretty. But modern wind turbines
produce electricity without polluting the atmosphere. And with each
rotation they produce repetitive sounds with small variations, depending
on wind direction, wind speed and the angle of the blades. |
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Is
Listening Composing? - Les séries sonores 34
An essay
about the perception of sound: wherein lies the beauty of sounds?
In the sound itself or in the imagination of the listener? This
CD contains the text (in German) spoken by the author. The written
text is also available here as a pdf-file
(in German). |
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Is
Listening Composing? - Les séries sonores 35
The
same essay about the perception of sound,
including a large number of acoustic examples from the séries
sonores. These form the aesthetic, philosophical, theological and
anecdotic background to the essay. The complete production (60 Min)
can be downloaded as a 128 kbps stream, but the CD naturally sounds
a lot better. |
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Siemens
atmospheres unplugged - Les séries sonores 36
George
Lukacs eat your heart out! In cavernous factory halls, with scarcely
a human being present, unmanned machines produce computer components
or electrical cable as thick as your arm, to the accompaniment of
a cacophony of sound rich in overtones and variation. In our gentle
stroll through the machine halls of Siemens AG, we explained to
the dozen or so workers "We're just measuring the atmospheric
noise!". Hence the title - Siemens atmospheres unplugged -
with no manipulation. These recordings were made in the summer of
1999. |
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Red-Spotted-Toads
& Frogs - Les séries sonores 37
Wolfgang
von Schweinitz / Hartmut Dorschner
Immediately after my mother’s and father’s death I went
four months on holiday to rest in the artists´ house Schloss
Wiepersdorf. After the brutal break it was very helpful for me to
start with something radically new. The frogs were there with their
springtime hormones, and with them even these red-spotted toads
which are almost extinct around here. So what could be more obvious
than to walk to the bog on the first evening of May, together with
my young colleague Hartmut Dorschner and his two excellent microphones,
and capture -as stereophonically as possible- about 74 minutes of
this complex and minimalistic music. |
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African Recordings I - Les séries sonores 38
Three choirs, the Abbeka Presbyterian Church Choir, the Nyame Adehyeman Sacred Choral Group and the Achimota Highschool Choir sing works of the more than 100-years-old Ghanaian choral tradition of this country, that combines African lyrics, African rhythms with polyphonic structures inherited from Europe. These recordings had been done in 1994, during our investigations for our tv-documentary “Composers under the tree of god - Art-Music in Ghana” (Bayerisches Fernsehen, 1995). |
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African Recordings II - Les séries sonores 39
On the way to the Pan African Orchestra Joseph, a xylophone-player from northern Ghana asked me to listen to his songs, in which he explains how the hearts of African girls could easily be conquered. This recording opens the CD, followed by a documentation of a rehearsal session of the Panafrican Orchestra (under the shadow of the trees of God), an orchestra exclusively playing with African instruments and whose repertory was composed by its founder and director Nana Dansu Abiam with his Atari-computer. (published by: http://sternsmusic.com CDRW48). |
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Lausitzer Platz - Les séries sonores 40
On Lausitz square midst of the Berlin district Kreuzberg there is a big playground. Children digging about in the sand and rocking on a see-saw, chatting mothers, a boys' gang playing soccer, a father and his son playing ping-pong -in the far-away background the supernal drone of subway line 1-, and a Romanian streetband wandering about. |
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Train to Pankow - Les séries sonores 41
The journey with the subway No. 2 lasts about 50 minutes from Ruhleben (Berlin-Spandau) to Pankow – right through the center of Berlin – 28 times you will hear the announcement: “Train to Pankow – please keep away!” |
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Around the center - Les séries sonores 42
To complete the entire circle around the center of Berlin with the city-train, you must travel for about one hour. The train stops 27 times. This recording was made during the football worldcup – but surprisingly people were quite calm and silent. |
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Place of March the 18th - Les séries sonores 43
Supposed, that the Brandenburger Tor is the very center of Berlin – and Berlin is the capital of Germany – then the “Place of march the 18th” and the “Pariser Platz” is the center of Germany. Although surrounded by heavy and noisy traffic, the place itself is caracterized by idyllic, rural silence: a hurdy-gurdy, horsecarriages, clicking cameras, touristguides, smiling japanese girls. |
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Why god is horny on Mariens? - Les séries sonores 44
In spring 2006 a journalist of the German National Radio (DLF) came to our studio to ask us some questions concerning the Séries Sonores. Somewhen the floodgates were opened – we tapped a barrel and gave free reign to our thoughts regarding the mythology of listening in christian western world. Because there was not enough time during his visit, we decided to send him a summary of our ideas by producing a self-interview, which lasted as long as one set of batteries. |
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AIR BORNE - by KARLHZEINZ ESSL and STEFAN KRÜSKEMPER
Les séries sonores 45
At the Aerodynamic Park in Berlin-Adlershof, 15 red loudspeakers distributed in open space recall the history of a location which served as the center of the German aviation at the beginning of the 20th century. The installation was conceived by the artist Stefan Krüskemper - the composition of the sound environment was carried out by the Viennese composer Karlheinz Essl, based on authentic audio material from the German Radio Archive. This CD represents an 80 minutes walk through this environment where the sounds from the loudspeakers interfere with the natural ambient soundscape of the location. |
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ABOUT FISHES AND BIRDS - RATATOUILLE - Les séries sonores 46
David Kammerer: It is only a two minutes wald from the habour to the bizarre world of the Hongkong fishmarkete. Teeth- and ageless old men cry their wares - “dela wie” - fresh fish - children are bustling between the legs of bargaining housewives, carrying tons of new goods to be sold. In the background you listen to the sounds of the meatcleavers, shouting radios, singing birds of paradise in their a lot too small cages. (Kongkong 2002)
This “soundwalk” is completed by Karlheinz Essl preparation of a “Ratatouille” (Corsica 2006)
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KLACKKLACK - Les séries sonores 47
High heels on a beautiful womans leg are not only visually exiting, but as interesting might be her sounds. This recording was made following the heels of a young lady walking the long way from subway station “Unter den Linden” (central Berlin) to the Gendarmenmarkt, passing by Alexanderplatz to the Hackeschen Höfe. With each step her sound changes not only because of a different underground, but as well the sound and space of the environment is continuously changing. |
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Fugitives Moments - Les séries sonores 48
Reality possesses the uncertainty of dreams. It forms us in such a way that it makes us form and deform it. In fact we build and deconstruct it ceaselessly by building it ourselves. And all this happens without us really being aware of it.
The same is true about sounds that our memories "daguérreotype ". We often think sounds are immutable… Until, fifteen or twenty years later, we notice that they changed. Or are at least no longer perceived in the same way. Like footprints testifying a passage, a presence.
The sounds collected in these "Moments Fugitives" try to make impressions of the past and the present audible.
All the sounds are connected with personal memories from my childhood, but were, of course, recorded much later.
(Details) Mario Gauthier
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Traces in the snow - Les séries sonores 49
In winter 2006/2007 we had only once snow around Berlin, and this was in April 2007. Reason enough for Hannah Hartman, my son David and me to take a long walk in the forest around the Klobichsee (close to Buckow – where Bert Brecht used to live) – 80 minutes – the microphones always close to the soles. |
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Havanna - Les séries sonores 50
By Ricardo Climent
I wanted to capture a sound-snap of Cuba before the Castro Era was over and all went sonically global; the engines of the remaining Buicks, the old Italian buses, etc. I was hoping to write a soundscape composition with them… but all went wrong and I could not. Although I got my recordings, they had an impact on me as never before. I was moved, they made me sad and confused, thoughtful and furious. I could neither remain impartial nor find my political side any longer. |
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Victoriescabossanova - Les séries sonores 51
By Ka-ho Cheung
Ka-ho Cheung´s comment: The recording lasts for 55 minutes non-stop along Victoria line in London. Finally got off at station Euston, I saw a Bossa Nova singer synchronized with a musical escalator ... (Ka-Ho Cheung comes from Hongkong and is living in Europe) |
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Dear Lydia! - Les séries sonores 52
A novel in letters in memoriam Nicola Testa – is an radioessay about media art (which scrambles the possibilities to communicate via letters with those open to the radio). The given occasion was the shutdown of the media art laboratorium TESLA in the Berlin Podewil´schen Palais in the end of 2007 – not at all a proof of intelligence of the Berlin cultural politices.
Manuscript (german) |
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Plaza Garibaldi - Les séries sonores 53
Mexico City, summer 1993. Every evening several dozens of Mariachi-bands gather on and around Plaza Garibaldi to offer their services to passing customers. In neighbouring bars and at the same time, several bands play simultaneously enhanced by (drunk) guests who once in a while belt out random folksongs without any accompaniment. |
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Pacific waves - Les séries sonores 54
The day this recording was made the waves of the Pacific in Monterico (Guatemala) were about 3 meters high before they broke on the black seashore. The torrents of water produce a roar that reaches a booming in the lowest frequencies. |
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Waves of the Baltic Sea - Les séries sonores 55
These waves were recorded on the Baltic sea beach in Poland on an almost windless day at the beginning of the summer - ca. 100 km. east of Stettin. The calm surf allowed us to record the waves at a very close distance (causing them to sound bigger than they really were!). I made another recording at about 50 meters away from the beach where I was surrounded by dunes. |
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Laguna Lachuà - Les séries sonores 56
The Laguna Lachuà is a nature reserve of several kilometer square of unspoiled and unchanged jungle surrounding a magnificent circular lake or laguna. Like in most jungles it is relatively quiet during the daytime, but in the evening instects perform a buzzing, squeaking and wailing concert and the colour of the melody changes every other minute. |
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Frogs Cows Starlings - Les séries sonores 57
On the Polish side of the “Oderbruch” the river has no dike and every time the flood flows over an enormous swamp. An ideal environment for mosquitos - which of course makes it ideal for frogs too, and for miles on end one can hear them buzzing in their millions. During the day herds of cows cross the swamp howling for their calves whilst in the trees hundreds of starlings twitter. |
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DARKBLUE - Les séries sonores 58
a radio play by Christian Calon and Uli Aumuller
"Darkblue" is a "Cinema-Opera" and its instrumentation originates from the same art form and was born at the same time as the cinema: electroacoustic music." Just like the screen and the the opera-stage emphasise big emotions, the two Sound-Cineasts based the combination of narration and music upon an intense lovestory.
And as in the musical form of a sonata a male and a female theme come closer ane closer together. The erotic images of this acoustical film evolve from the fantasy of the listener.
Production: Deutschland radio Berlin / südwestrundfunk 2008
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