Commissioned by Kommen&Gehen Festival for the Volklied3000 project, in which an artificial intelligence algorithm writes lyrics based on a title, year and region. If I remember correctly, this was Berlin 2100 and "Ich Habe Mich Selbst Getroffen" translates to "I have met myself".

Written by João Orecchia and Tsepo Pooe
Adelle Nqeto - voice
João Orecchia - electronics
Tsepo Pooe - cello

Ich Habe Mich Selbst Getroffen

Under the Hanging Tree by Perivi Katjavivi explores themes of historical trauma, identity, and cultural displacement, set against the backdrop of Namibia’s colonial past. A hard-boiled police officer from the city is transferred to a small desert village in Namibia, where she uncovers a series of grisly animal sacrifices perhaps linked to the disappearance of the villagers’ children. Music composition by João Orecchia and Mpumelelo Mcata, sound design by João Orecchia.

Under The Hanging Tree

Directed by Kudzanai Chiurai. One part of the trilogy: Creation - Iyeza - Moyo.

Iyeza

Directed by Simon Wood. A short documentary about a sculptor who isn't thrilled about having a documentary made about him.

From "Silent Form"

The Wound - Kwanda's Theme

A cover of Two Blue Lights by Songs:Ohia, from the album Didn't It Rain. Backing vocals and viola by Jean-Louise Nel.

Two Blue Lights

Music from The Donkey Child by Lindiwe Matshikiza at The Hillbrow Theatre, Johannesburg.

The Donkey Child

A reflection on living with the dead and dying in response to Ingmar Bergman's film Autumn Sonata. Joao Orecchia - electronics, Jill Richards - piano.

Autumn Sonata

While on residency in the town of Richmond, set in the expansive Karoo region of South Africa, I experimented with the deconstruction of a static image - an abstract landscape drawing by visual artist Liza Grobler - into individual parts and sections with the aim of producing and performing a score based on the original image. I wanted perform the score intuitively, then retrospectively decode the process in order to reconstruct a new image representing that process. This is the original performance - for electronics, field recordings and broken piano. 

The resulting image  became a new score, shown at Circa Cape Town and has been performed several times by different ensembles.

Here to the Margin

A stereo recording of a telephone pole on a regional road in the vast Karoo region of South Africa, made with contact microphones. Walking in the landscape I happened on a pole that was not properly set in the ground, and so was vibrating loudly enough to be audible. Attaching the contact microphones, one can hear shifting overtones caused by fluctuations in the wind pushing kilometres of telephone wire in varying speed and direction, converging on the pole.

Mesmerising and encompassing, I felt privileged to witness and capture this secret song that was going endlessly, whether or not anyone was there to hear it. If a tree vibrates in a desert and no one is there to hear it, yes, it does make a sound.

The Margin to Here

João Orecchia is an artist who makes things with sound.

These things take the form of music, installation, performance, pirate radio and events. João performs globally as a solo artist, as an improvisor in various configurations and with his band Motèl Mari. His discography spans more than a decade of albums, remixes and film scores. 

João has coordinated, curated and co-written a large scale public performance project called United African Utopias, which included over 40 performers guiding public through an abstract universe superimposed over Johannesburg, examining the role of imagination and perspective in the creation of day to day reality. Another ongoing project, Invisible Cities, is a series of curated events that engage artists, musicians and public in a collaborative, experimental spatial relationship with the city. Invisible Cities fleetingly inhabits transitional spaces, creating momentary realities and exposing hidden layers of possibility for what life in Johannesburg might be like with a bit of imagination. Born out of this is ICR / Invisible Cities [Pirate] Radio, which equally seeks to interrogate our relationship with the city by questioning established formats and practices of commercial radio.

Joao Orecchia

Popular tracks