“The sound of burning coal is the sound of politics.” Our sonic expedition begins in the heart of energy production of a country that traditionally relies on fossil fuels. The sounds emanating from the machines, engines and turbines of a coal-fired power plant reveal not only the nature of this energy infrastructure, but also represent the logic of the power – both physical and political – it wields over its surroundings. What impact does the power plant have on the life in its vicinity? And what prevents a political decision to stop this slow violence?

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Throrarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes podcast 〜 #1: Fossil Injustice. Tušimice coal power plant, Czech Republic.

The eighth largest geothermal power plant in the world, set in a volcanic landscape covered with green moss, visually creates the impression of a harmonious place. The geological bedrock here is not only used to extract heat. It also serves as an underground storage of CO2, which gradually turns into stone. What does the sound say about the nature of drilling into the geological bedrock? Does it hint at the promise of a future in which humans have control over the environment?

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Throrarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 〜 #2: Management of a Gift. Hellisheiði geothermal power plant, Iceland.

Land depleted by intensive agriculture and threatened by climate change poses a number of questions for future food security. Aquaponics, which makes it possible to grow crops without using soil and with only a minimal amount of water, offers the promise of a partial solution. Although this closed and sterile production system is based on a natural nutrient cycle, the farm in Kaly resembles a laboratory and is very distant from our idea of agriculture. What relationship between nature, landscape and man do the sounds of this futuristic scene suggest?

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Throrarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 〜 #3: Food Not Soil. Kaly aquaponic farm, Czech Republic.

A few years ago, part of a former military area was repopulated with bison, wild horses and aurochs, the latter of which was back-bred after the last one went extinct five hundred years ago. Once the area was exclusively reserved as a home for ancient animal species, scientists were surprised at the tremendous increase in biodiversity. The Milovice reserve, however, is not just an incentive to romanticize the wilderness, but also to explore possible futures for the landscape. Could its release from its productive function help transform the way the ecosystems function?   

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan 
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro 
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný 
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková 
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak 
Editor: Iveta Černá 
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Thorarensen 
Studio: Mr. Wombat 
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová 
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 4: Artificial Nature or Natural Artificiality. Milovice grazing reserve.

Hydroelectric power is a clean source of energy, but it can also be used to power an operation that is highly pollutive, which in this case is a giant aluminum smelter. The minimalist aesthetics, as well as the absence of certain sounds, may only serve to camouflage the impact of this engineering project, which is embedded into a cascade of dams. What do the sounds beneath the still water reveal about the impact of this facility on climate change?

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Thorarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 〜 #5: Between Two Worlds. Búðarháls hydropower dam, Iceland.

The oil field is on the verge of being depleted. Beneath the surface, there are only remnants of a substance that has made modern mobility, globalization, the plastics industry and probably even capitalism as we know it possible. In the future, it is to become an experimental repository for compressed CO2, and the oil in the underground caverns will be replaced by the result of its combustion. What unexpected connections does the sound of the pumpjack, emblematic of the oil rush of an earlier era, point to?

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Thorarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 〜 #6: Holy Liquid. Žarošice oil well, Czech Republic.

The lagoon is a liquid burial ground of ice from Iceland's largest glacier, Vatnajökull. Along with it, an ancient archive of thousands of years of information preserved in the ice is melting into the atmosphere. The deafening thunder accompanying the collapse of the massive chunks of melting ice warns that a wealth of knowledge that will never be read is disappearing along with it. It also points to the challenges that Iceland and the world will soon have to face. If nature has a personality, it speaks with a distinctive voice in this place.

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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Thorarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 〜 #7 〜 No Ice, Just Land. Fjallsárlón glacier lagoon, Iceland.

In the depths of the Earth, there is an immense energy that teases humanity, as it is unable to extract it. At the same time, each volcanic eruption can threaten all the life surrounding it with its rivers of hot magma, ash and poisonous gasses. The volcano is not only a manifestation of the forces of the more-than-human world, but also a scale model of historical extinction events. This dramatic spectacle reminds us that man's domination over nature is not undisputed.


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Written and directed by: Ivo Bystřičan
Field recordists: Magnús Bergsson, Sara Pinheiro
Sound recordist: Jan Kalužný
Sound design and mix: Marie Čtveráčková
Narrated by: Skyland Václav Kobylak
Editor: Iveta Černá
Protagonists: Lukáš Likavčan, Václav Havelka, Pan Thorarensen
Studio: Mr. Wombat
Producer: Tereza Swadoschová
Ⓒ Era Productions 2023

www.futurelandscapes.cz

Future Landscapes 〜 podcast 〜 #8 〜 More Than You Can Handle. Fagradalsfjall volcano, Iceland.

What does sound tell us about our future? Can it inspire us to think differently? Through sonic expeditions to eight landscapes in the Czech Republic and Iceland, we look for solutions to challenges facing our civilization in the area of energetics, agriculture and landscape management.

To gain new insights and knowledge, the expedition explores the environments of the Hellisheiði geothermal power plant with CarbFix underground carbon dioxide storage technology, the Búðarháls hydroelectric power plant, the Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon and the Fagradalsfjall volcano. In Czechia, the expedition visits the Tušimice coal-fired power plant, the Žarošice CO2-Spicer repository, the Kaly aquaponic farm, and the Milovice rewilding reserve.

As a part of an interdisciplinary project Future Landscapes, field-recordists Sara Pinheiro and Magnús Bergsson venture into areas filled with ambiguity and unsuspected risks. Their special sound instruments are able to capture the innermost technological processes and phenomena that our ears can’t hear.

Find out more about the project at www.futurelandscapes.eu.

The project is being realized with support of the EEA Grants.

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Sara Pinheiro's equipment:

RECORDER
Sound Devices MixPre-10T

MICROPHONES
Sennheiser Ambeo VR Mic
DPA SMK-SC4060
AKG C411
Telephone Pick-Up Coil1
Aquarian H2a
Elektroucho Pro
Geofón

Follow Sara https://soundcloud.com/sarapini

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Magnús Bergsson's equipment:

RECORDER
Sound Devices MixPre-6

MICROPHONES
Sennheiser MKH30/40 (MS)
Sennheiser MKH8020/MKH8040 (AB40)
DIY stereo mic. w. Primo EM172 capsules (Baffled - Binaural)
Benthowave BII-7121 & Aquarian H2a XLR Hydrophones
LOM geophones

Follow Magnús https://soundcloud.com/fieldrecording-net