blablabor
guest appearance from Switzerland
This summer, the artist duo blablabor is making a guest appearance on Radioart's digital stage with a series of short audio pieces compiled in three groups that will be presented during June, July and August.
blablabor was founded in 2000 by Annette Schmucki and Reto Friedmann, who since then have created a large variety of audio plays and performance works in which Radio and Language are in focus, both as theme and material. In their often multilingual, musically structured audio plays, they examine the role of radio in contemporary society, its communicative ability, and how radio as a medium relates to a changing world. The language they use is playful, finding its way along new paths, crossing the boundaries of words and of language itself, and trying out new possibilities and connections. The audio pieces published by Radioart this summer have been grouped into three different "islands" that highlight different sides of blablabor's artistry. Introductory texts for each group of pieces will be published on our blogg in connection with each premiere.
Annette Schmucki och Reto Friedmann
Three performances will be presented.
The first opening on the 25th of June.
Welcome to Radioart and the world of blablabor!
The third island
aua da vau:
Au da vau, Val Müstair. The river in eastern Switzerland. Accordion, letters, furrows, ramifications. The ramifications of a river, the ramifications of a word.
3'22"
das fell die sonne der döss da las leivras:
Over a landscape, a hike, the melodies. Hares, in the sun, the fur, the slopes. A song.
6'20"
multa:
Down into the valley, a word is translated, transitions. Multa, in the Romanian dialect Jauer, to mouth and further in to german, through rhythm, sound.
2'00"
The second island
beule am lautsprecher:
The radio. The antenna is snapped off, battery is weak, buttons are loose.
A dent in the speaker’s grille. The object is falling apart. But the signal stays intact.
​
1'24"
fine tuning:
A song, a seeking. A path through the noise, a path towards pure sound.
A wandering, a state of mind.
​
3'58"
fust:
One transmits and the other receives. A network of waves, connected at the apparatus. And the material conditions for reception.
​
2'17"
short range devices:
Modes of broadcasting, direct communications.
Low risk of interference. Parallel, worldwide, frequency ranges.
​
1'51"
überlagerrung:
Overlapping. Noise. The music in conversations, the conversations
in music. The conversation in conversation, the music in music. Soundscape, noise, a kind of negation, a world.
​
1'24"
The first island
beim namen genannt:
To be called by a name. To name. The verb heiße as a border: on one side the unnamed, on the other side the named. We find ourselves in a garden, amongst plants and gardening tools, we find ourselves in a language, amongst the words, in the grammar.
2'54"
geht in ordnung:
All is in order. The words are arranged, lined up, shifting shapes amongst themselves. A game of inflections, crossing languages, a pulse. Order, organised, ordinary. A route through the word.
4'45"
und es war gut:
And it was good. The spoken language as a state. We’re in the garden, the language is established. The simplicity, the everyday. The versatility, the music. A possible match between language, music, world.
1'36"