לְשׁוֹן כְּלָבֶיךָ מֵאֹיְבִים מִנֵּהוּ

Talerschwingen names a traditional instrumental practice from the canton of Appenzell and the Toggenburg region that first appeared in the beginning of the 20th century. It involves rotating a five franc coin in a bowl to create a continuous sound, reminding the one of a cow bell, originally played to host naturjodel singing. As many folk sound traditions of Switzerland, Talerschwingen is an improvised instrument, opportunely fashioned from everyday life objects and the astonishment of their noise potential. The two elements required in the making of this instrument - a coin and a milk bowl - accidentally drive two clichés of Swiss culture - cows and money, or farming and banking - into sound, and create a riche and complex noise from a simple circular and repetitive gesture and its micro-variations, a tiny fragment taken from the countryside to be stretched into a genuine meditative soundscape.

talerschwingen

Kokhlias и Loulan

#0_obscure_singing // cellar_caller_pnicnpic

Vous
Les satyres puants ça se mange à l’état d’oeuf, avant la pousse
oui, ça a le goût du radis
Vous
Y a ton téléphone qui fait que de m’appeler
Demande au chat d’arrêter stp
Ce message a été supprimé.
Vous
Et vous, mangé des trucs?
lépiotes élevées, bolets orangés et rudes, pieds de moutons roussissants, lactaires délicieux, écailleux
c’est la fête aux champignons cet été
Et l’amanite, tu la manges?
Vous
Yé tu peux m’appeler?
bon, how far is too too too far from too far?

Kokhlias и Loulan aka Olga Kokcharova & Antoine läng

mixed by Olga Kokcharova

extraits de deux concerts live partagés en cave et en abîme entre Genève et Bruxelles, sur Radio Picnic, recombinés pour les Cartopodes des Topophoniques
www.topophoniques.ch/cartopodes

infinis mercis à Jonathan Frigeri et Zonoff
www.zonoff.net

#0_Obscure_Singing_Cellar_Caller_Pnicnpic

composition released on dec. 9 2022 on a multichannel system for the Centerpoint Series, Cinéma Bellevaux, Lausanne
this is a rough mix

dérives_d_inattention

long run acoustic jaw harp solo improvisation

twnttwtzr

Live solo performance @ Urgent Paradise Art Space - Lausanne, 11.12.14, as part of Andrea Marioni's series "le syndrome du cri"

voice and megaphones / no amplification


Live Solo @ Urgent Paradise - Lausanne

Antoine Läng / jaw harp solo

This work focuses on the jaw harp with simple preparations and gestures to help the instrument modulate itself in different ways, in order to explore its polyphonic potential and electroacoustic characteristics outside of traditional playing techniques, with a minimalist approach.

This track was recorded as a single take without overdubs or additional effects to share the feeling of a live performance, and the way time blurs and sound changes from repetition, effort and exhaustion.

Lâcher les chiens tant qu'on y est // album:
https://insub.bandcamp.com/album/la-cher-les-chiens-tant-qu-on-y-est

lâcher les chiens tant qu'on y est_long_take

Le coeur à l’ouvrage

Christian et Antoine Läng forment un duo d’improvisation libre. Leurs rencontres redéfinissent les contours de leurs univers respectifs, construits à partir d’un intérêt commun pour les espaces acoustiques et les textures sonores dans les marges de leurs instruments. Leurs gestes simples tracent et animent quelques voies du son à la musique. 

Antoine Läng: voix, porte-voix, objets 
Cristian Wolfarth: caisse claire, cymbales, objets

Cet enregistrement a été réalisé lors d'un concert donné à Ö:ton, Zurich, le 16 décembre 2024. 

Läng_Wolfarth_live_Ö_ton

Live solo performance @ NK_Berlin//May 15th 2015
voice and acoustic megaphones / no amplification

Solo_Live@NK_Berlin

controlled feedback, glass tube, delay and Moog Subharmonicon

From Les adieux bienvenus, TT36, Titania Tapes, 2025: 
https://titaniatapes.bandcamp.com/album/tt36-les-adieux-bienvenus

Les adieux bienvenus features two types of sound modulation using the hand through simple and limited gestures. The first, La voie par le peu, is a piece for prepared jaw harp: a 20-minute repetitive plucking by hand is balanced with micro movements inside of the mouth and oscillations of magnets on the instrument. The second piece, A en perdre haleine, is feedback generated with an electronic setup through a glass tube. It is controlled by the hands holding its ends, creating a movement of air inside by opening, closing and orienting the tube in space.

à_en_perdre_haleine

érémozoïque

Kokhlias & Loulan

Olga Kokcharova: field recording - electroacoustic
Antoine Läng: voice - megaphones

from recordings over and underwater in the Lac de Tanay,  Switzerland, August 15 2017, 4 to 6 am.
dedicated to Venus - Venera, from a project commissioned by HUMANKIND RECORDS http://www.humankindrecords.com/
composed by Olga Kokcharova and Antoine Läng
mastering by Gianluca Ruggeri

Our axis of composition/creation are mainly focused on our perception: - how Venus can be perceived from us either as a planet, as a star (seen from Earth) or as a deity; - how sound is affected by environment and how it can be perceived whether through the Earth’s atmosphere or through the thick air of Venus and how the distance between the perception of human voice and electronic instrumentation can be blurred through this atmospheric filtration.

We did not proceed from collecting pure data as none of us two are scientists. We rather worked intuitively, from our human, artistic and literary backgrounds, as people who first know the planet as a bright star easily observed in the sky at dusk and at dawn, or from stories other humans weaved after the same observation, in other words, from different points of vue: poetry, mythology, science and music, human sources and, somehow, interpretations.

Our first move was to draw a connection between Venus and water that happened to be very fertile. Not only because of her birth in the ocean, following the Greek mythology, but also, as a star, from several links made with the activity of fishing that we found in literacy. We chose to follow this lead also because of the composition of Venus atmosphere, thicker and heavier than Earth, probably something in between air and water that might affect the sound on the planet.

Then we decided to make voice and field recordings over and underwater, partly during the time the planet can be observed in Lake Tannay’s sky (Swiss Alps) as a first collection of sounds « from the planet Venus », through means that were accessible from Earth. Additional recordings came later as complements. Most of the sounds are vocal sounds performed and recorded underwater and in the air. We thought the mix of the two sources could sound like something perceived on Venus, through its atmosphere. We also observed that these vocal emissions could be mistaken with synthetic/electronic sounds. Further, we also proceeded starting from the atmosphere of Venus, imagining sounds that would be more appropriate and efficient in such environnement than words and singing - like whales or seals in the ocean - to create a specific Venusian poetry.


Sources:
Poetry: Lo Steddazzu, Cesare Pavese, a poem dedicated to the morning star and a fisherman: http://balbruno.altervista.org/index-1222.html
Mythology: Barnumbir, an aboriginal goddess related to the morning star and fishing
Sound document: Venera / from the first russian probe that collect sound samples from Venus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jZDW53U8qQ&t=94s

So these are the main inputs; our structure follows the day/night times that we thought could be connected to the variations between underwater and air sound environnements.

VENERA by Kokhlias & Loulan

recorded live @ Espace Echallens on june 15 2012: acoustic voice + acoustic brass megaphones solo without any amplification.

antoinelang

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