𝗢𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱
𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱
𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝘆.

Like personal memories, music leaves us with unfulfilled dreams.
They are the secret gifts we received from history which shine through the remains of their demise. They bear a promise:

The possibility to begin, to destroy and to carry on
without cynicism yet with strategy
without defeatism even after defeat.

Here and there, flowers have grown even behind the enemy lines. Through music we can be reminded of this.

released December 28, 2022
written, performed and produced by John-Robin Bold 2016-2022
'gift' uses a sample of Perotin's 'Sederunt Principes' performed by the Hilliard Ensemble
poem excerpt of 'Marilyn' by Pier Paolo Pasolini from 'La Rabbia'

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The album Symposium Musicum is developed from field recordings, interviews, and observations collected in the villages of Podolínec, Lomnička, Levočské Vrchy, and Kolačkov - all areas of the eastern and north-eastern Slovakia with significant Romani enclaves. The pieces resulting from these interactions encourage the listener to tune in for a delicate negotiation of language, (audible) gesture, and storytelling.

The collaboration with the local participants appears lighthearted and whimsical on the records, but this seeming easiness is clearly a result of devoted fieldwork planning and committed post-production. The curated compositions represent and emphasize not only performative aspects of the acoustic activities but also point attention to seemingly non-productive aspects of creation, such as silence, hesitation, observation, perception, or waiting.

Sound experiment and preservation is not the only goal of the project. Some of the records capturing acoustic activities in peculiar places but also carry an element of social novelty that accompanied their making - according to the locals in Lomnička, the recording visitors were the first non-Romani persons who spent the night in the village.

In many instances, these recordings explore liminal spaces that have lost their original function (a church ruin or an out-of-business grocery store) and became a lively territory for acoustic exploration and playful reciprocity. For instance, in track 7, "Kavka", local children used crackling leaves as percussion devices.

Such moments betray a high level of engagement in the subtle details of the recorded spaces and their social ecologies. According to the creators, their creative processes involve "a social sound practice" as an attitude towards exploring sound in its social setting.

Symposium Musicum leaves behind many aesthetic conventions of sound capture and what is considered "musical", including the usual notions of a linguistic unit, narrative, memoir, and play. Instead, it engages in a self-reflective questioning of the way we listen to the world around us.

This project invites us to experience places outside the divided sociolinguistic provinces, resulting from multigenerational displacement and neglect of the Romani communities from the explored areas. The result is in many ways revelatory and poetically impactful. 

Concept by Marika Smreková, Elia Moretti
Field recording, composition, mixed by by John-Robin Bold, Anna Khvyl, Elia Moretti

Recorded on August and September, 2019 in Podolínec, Lomnička, Levočské Vrchy and Kolačkov, Slovakia.

Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Designed by Martin Kyjovský
Cover art by Pierre Louis Barge

Liner notes by Jan Dužda, John-Robin Bold, Anna Khvyl, Elia Moretti
Words by Dominika Moravčíková
Photography by Zoltan Czakó

Originally made for UM UM - Community Festival of Contemporary Theater and Art, which, for its 8th edition, focused on the relationship between Roma and Slovaks in Stará Ľubovňa.
umumfestival.com

Thanks to Ľudmila Smreková, Peter Smrek, Jan Dužda, Domninika Moravčíková, Anička Oračková, Magdaléna Pompová, Matyáš Dlab, Hamed Mundi, Matěj Sýkora

Released by mappa as MAP030 in 2023



In Response

Nudity

Attention

Simultan Camps

Takt

Kavka

Romane Gila

𝗔𝗯𝘂𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱 & 𝗞𝗠𝗥𝗨 - 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 - 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 

𝗟𝘂𝗸𝗮𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘇 𝗪𝗲𝗴𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗿 - 𝗳𝗼-𝗵𝗻 - 𝗕𝟮

𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗝𝗔 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖́ - 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗘𝘆𝗲𝘀 - 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗰𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗵 

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗘𝗡 - 𝘀𝗶𝘅 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 - 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱𝘀 (𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟮) (𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗽𝘁)

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗩𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼 & 𝗧𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗲𝘂𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗲 - 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮 - 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼

𝗧𝗼𝗻𝗶 𝗗𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃 + 𝗗𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗳 - 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 - 𝟬𝟭 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹

𝗞. 𝗟𝗲𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿 - 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 - 𝗘𝗻𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘃𝗲

42 42

[ 𝗲 𝗮 𝗿 ] • 𝗹𝘆 — 𝗼 𝗳 𝗳 𝗮 𝗹 𝗹 (𝗺𝗶𝘅)

The duo Corporation, formed by Racine (Julien Racine) and Keru Not Ever (Justin Leduc-Frenette), have been linking contemporary electronic music with the brute practices of electro-acoustic and plunderphonic music for several years. This - as patent in their respective works as in their debut album, Graffito (2019 [Genot Centre]) - results in hallucinatory music based on collage, superposition, repetition, synthesis and field-recording. It is composed as an acousmatic theater of sound artifacts without actors.

They are now returning with their sophomore album, Tableaux du doute, a work of sound investigations, traces, clues and alibis collected between 2021 and 2024. Drawing motifs and samples from the soundtracks of neo-noir films and detective movies of the 1990s and 2000s (Miami Vice, L.A. Confidential, Scoop, etc.) the pieces are composed as small tableaux, scenes of obsessive (dis)appearances and ordinary conspiracies, whose curtains hide underhand thefts and repeated treacheries. Every piece insists on and repeats the motives of doubt - before the revelation of a crime - whether felted by the lyrical eroticism of violins or the oblique coldness of FM synthesis.

The album can be listened as both a fanfiction-turned-mixtape and a musical études of investigative tropes - an empty object whose mystery is entirely produced by the artificial surface of seductive sounds.

releases November 14, 2025

Corporation - Sa dent douce à la mort

misophonia

𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲
This profile contains both music and website-specific internet art from my series 'SoundCloud Gazing' which (mis)uses features of SoundCloud to explore how the platform influences listening habits.

- Booking: contact@johnrobinbold.com

Bold/Cowling with @andycowling
albums:
@achim-szepanski
@quanta-records
@mappaeditions

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