One of humankind’s notable achievements is supposed to have been the founding of the United Nations and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It consists of 1360 words. Observing the world around me, these words feel empty. Almost everywhere I look, I see gender discrimination, sexual repression, homophobia, racism and enforced displacement. If there are truths within the text, it feels, they got lost somewhere within the noise. 1360 words is a performative cynical recounting of these words; an indirect political statement reaching out to enhance individual and collective awareness of the distance we still need to cover, so that the words will reclaim their ‘signified’ aspect and emerge through the noise as meaningful materialised realities.

Conception & Composition: Luc Messinezis.
Performance: Lina Exarhou.

1360 Words

a soundwork produeced 
for radio Papesse / Radia Network

http://radia.fm/?p=841

RADIO PAPESSE PRESENTA: Radia Show # 314 - Crossings by Barbara De Dominicis

L'impronta sonora dei paesaggi metropolitani di New York e Napoli, l'intreccio di voci e ritmi che descrivono, dalla strada alla sala di un museo, la natura delle due città, sono al centro di questo doppio ritratto urbano prodotto da Barbara De Dominicis.


Torna Radia e torna ciclico l'appuntamento stagionale con la produzione commissionata o selezionata da Radio Papesse; è con piacere che vi presentiamo Crossings. L'impronta sonora dei paesaggi metropolitani di New York e Napoli, l'intreccio di voci e ritmi che descrivono, dalla strada alla sala di un museo, la natura delle due città, sono al centro di questo doppio ritratto urbano prodotto da Barbara De Dominicis. 
Buon ascolto.


'Just as the living room reappears on the street, with chairs, hearth, and altar, so…the street migrates into the living room.' 
'Porosity is the inexhaustible law of life in this city.'
from Walter Benjamin and Asja Lacis ‘Naples’, 1925

'City of ships!  (O the black ships! O the fierce ships!  O the beautiful sharp bow'd steamd-ships and sail-ships!)  City of the world! (for all races are here,  all the lands of the earth make contributions here;) City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!'
from Walt Whitman 'City of Ships' Drum-Taps 1865


CROSSINGS is an emporium of memories documenting Naples and New York along the imaginary 41°parallel that ties them on the same latitude line. Two cities in continuous metamorphosis, revealing how fragile the fringes between reality and the imaginary may be. Analog and digital meet to witness  sounds of strangers, unknown horizon, private memories and crowded streets.These sound collecting events are aimed at creating a dislocation in the listener's uncertain perception of space through sound: a sort of unerasable 'shadow zone' for the imaginary city walker to inhabit a no man's land where the boundaries between the two cities are hardly palpable, proposing a displacing where gaps between audio fragments become for a few instants a sole 'modified' city.

credits: most sounds have been gathered in New York and Naples (sometime between october 2009 and february 2011) then manipulated filtered and and re-worked. The track makes use of field recordings, found sounds, synthesizers, filters, Luigi's Pizza Fritta conversations; liturgical rituals at Napoli Dome (during the days of San Gennaro's blood miracle) Akira Kasai 's Buthoh Performance at the National Museum, Napoli; Porta Capuana Fruit market; Peppino reading excerpts of 'Alzaia' by Erri de Luca; Banda and voices during the San Rocco Parade in Nyc; Coney Island subway stations and library sounds from the american radio archive, The Naked City, Union Square Farmer Market (nyc);  student's protests in Napoli; Marc Ribot concert at the Rose-Brooklyn; New York and Napoli harbours/seagulls/ships; open/broken cables, children; vocal and spoken words and cries, casual frequencies and a few more sources...
Recorded with MD Sony, telephone, Zoom digital recorder with a stereo microphone and in-ear binaural condenser mics, Edirol R4 Pro and Rode Shot-Gun mic

RADIO-DOC///Crossings

Performance for Piano and Electronics at Villa Romana,
April 2011 usind csound live
Piano: Pavlos Antoniadis | Electronics: Luís Antunes Pena
New Version and recording available here: Caffeine Wergo 2016 https://de.schott-music.com/luis-antunes-pena-caffeine 
More info: http://sumtone.com/work.php?workid=404

K-U-L-T

Extract from the sonic ethnography documentary 'Passa la Banda?'
Official selection, Ethnographic Terminalia 2011 'field, studio, lab' (Montréal, Canada)

Extract from 'Passa la Banda?'

Verwendet für die Performance "...und wenn wir schlafen" im Rahmen von von verwendet wurden.

1.  Schlafen im Wohnwagen am Siebensternplatz 20110609
2. Schlafende Kühe im Stall 20040718
3. Schlafen im Freien im Wald 20110909
4. Schlafen im Zelt am Fluss 20110821
5. Schlafen bei Flugzeuglärm 20110526
6. Schlafen vor dem Fernseher 20100801
7. Schlafen bei Baustellenlärm 20110802
8. Schlafen in ruhiger Umgebung 20110731

8 unterschiedliche Schlafsituationen

...good and evil, light and darkness, tranquility and intensity, joy, harmony, unrest, anger, conflict, death, rebirth, metamorphosis...
These elements co-exist within a musical context of intense sonic antitheses, inspired by myth and magic, and also by the human nature of emotions, thoughts, internal fight, transcendence...
For the creation of the work, sounds borrowed from an old Greek 6-string bouzouki were utilised, in combination, at certain parts, with transformed vocal sounds. 


Demons and Fairies

Audio scaled down example in octet format for SIM_phony #1.

SIM_phony Octet

Tunnel

What does the world sound like through the ears of a baby?  

Work notes:
I decided I was going to explore this idea after catching the tail end of these two grannies cooing over a crib, their voices rising from the archway below the terrace where I was standing. Ran to get the microphone, held it upside down, tried not to be seen. It was only about three minutes before the mother's arrival to pick up the baby from the two 'sitters' brought the narrative to a natural ending. Despite the less than ideal recording conditions, I felt strongly about the concept and I didn't want the main track to go to waste, so I rescued it the best I could with the help of the lovely Varun Nair.  Then I got to work on the compositional aspect of it and the additional sounds.  
The additional field recordings include sounds from the natural environment in the vicinity, as well as the rocking of the crib in the photograph- still in my family home, it welcomed my dad as well as a good few of his six brothers.  
Particularly meaningful to me is the accent and the endearment words used by the ladies, such as 'uaglionella', 'gallenella', 'da' nonna' 'bell'i'zzia' which I remember used on me as a child by my own granny, Nonna Vittoria and her sister Zia Candida.
From reality, somewhat from memory, and mostly from imagination.

Location: Pollino National Park, Basilicata (south of Italy)

Ninna-O

Steps that define us and betray us, warn us or disorientate us, are imposing or surprising, steps that are provoking or silent, steps like keys on keyboards… An electronic profile of human steps. For ten days and during different times of the day, an in situ observation and systematic documentation of this activity in the interior spaces of the Old Jesuit Monastery and the exterior space of the mazy alleys of Ano Syros took place. By intensifying the possibilities of the footsteps, I used a variety of handy materials that I casually put in designated points of these two spaces. The sound performance "Behind The Obvious Sound" was presented at the Monastery in July of 2018 before closing the Sounding Paths 2018 residency.

Behind The Obvious Sound / Performance / Sounding Paths 2018 / Ano Syros

Heaphones recommended. 

Second in the Summer Miniature series (2012).
Soundscaping a religious procession, from the ground up.

**Video blog for this track: https://vimeo.com/44205910**

The Holy Shuffle

Luc Messinezis is an artist and researcher working across sound, installation and performance. His practice oscillates between aural awareness, philosophy and the humanities. Coming from a scientific background, he changed direction toward creative practices and now holds an MA in sound arts awarded by the University of the Arts London and a PhD for his research on Aural Simulacra at the Ionian University. Luc reads the act of listening as an extrovert gesture of expression and tends to ‘mediumizing’ the audience by placing them at the epicenter of the work. He has presented a multitude of artworks across the globe with notable activities including among others his presentations at Ars Electronica 2020 (AT), minus20degree Festival 2020 (AT), Primarolia Festival 2019 (GR), ADAF 2015/2021 (GR) and Ethnographic Terminalia 2011 (CA). He was a resident at AIR – Niederosterreich (AT) in 2010 and he was nominated for the ScreenGrab7 2015 Media Award (AU) for his work ‘The Modern book of Cynics’. As a researcher Luc has presented his work in many international conferences, and has authored several publications. Finally, he is affiliated with the Ionian University’s Department of Audio and Visual Arts and he is an active member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Association and the Hellenic Society for Acoustic Ecology.

1360 Words

Luc Messinezis

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