noise pollution——critical tourism

WORST SONGS OF ALL TIME

glasovi / voices

would you be so kind and abandon for a glimpse an unbending definition of the world to the living and the non–living? look at all the objects around you, and observe how they are embedded in space, by gravity and density. unravel them from their meaning, speculate about their consistency. think about their history and other spaces they were once part of. then, give them a voice. and I don’t mean just a sound that they would produce if they fell or were dismantled. remember the moment they became a part of your life. induce them with memory. define them with everything which is non–obvious about them. feed them with time, and moments and interactions piling up in fractal eddies. is there a glimpse of spirit in those objects? can they be spiritualised? is anything artificially made truly dead? is there anything living truly infinite? listen through the solids, and allow the boundaries to disappear.

dedicated to Mark Vernon for his 50th birthday.

all sounds recorded and edited by Manja Ristić
hydrophone by JrF
mastering La Plant Studio

pumpa / the pump

Kuda plovi ovaj brod? Where is this ship sailing? is a sound work built from hydrophone recordings of underwater sound pollution. The recordings were taken over the span of 2 years in the historical town of Korčula and its immediate surroundings.

This 40–minute long radio adaptation / sound installation is an unsettling journey revealing the dystopian realm of Adriatic noise contamination, due to increased water traffic and the insatiable urge for the expansion of industry and tourism. The work consciously exposes a disturbing marine reality in which an inexhaustible amount of mechanical sources are literally grinding the underwater soundscape.

full essay at >>> independent.academia.edu/ManjaRistic

All sounds recorded, edited & composed by Manja Ristić
Text by Manja Ristić
Mastering by La Plant Studio
Archive images — courtesy of a private archive
Special thanks to Vinka Damjanović, Mark Vernon, Goran Simonoski

ELL Studio 2023 – All Rights Reserved

Bandcamp

Kuda plovi ovaj brod? Where is this ship sailing?

series "Stories Untold" is my latest collection of poetry.

each poem is a starting point for the sound works that emerge from the narratives dealing with love and loss – offering insights into the wisdom of tragedy but also its deterministic weight.

this collection is embodied by the poem: tailless tarantella lifted its head, and it is followed by the collection of black & white photographs taken on the island of Korčula.

sound works are tales about life beaming through the body & textures of belonging, about the memories folded, twirled & woven onto a fabric of space. within them, water whispers about the places hidden & machines spirited, with electric current spilling over the brim of noise, unbearable, unstoppable noise of life beaming through the body & textures of belonging...

><

for Mark

><

it was the day when the balloon disappeared into the wall
it was the day when the dog bit you while you were helpless
tailless tarantella lifted its head
toward the crackling chorus
of pine cones blooming

tags, tags, hundreds of tags
and desire to observe cracks
it was the day when the wisdom leaked
it was the day when witches fell sick
again, when wonders went pale
lingering away
in aimless whiteness

I didn’t become anyone great 

><

part of the series Stories Untold
sound, text & images by Manja Ristić
cover art by Manja Ristić
mastering by La Plant Studio
produced by ELL Studio 2023
manjaristic.bandcamp.com

All rights reserved

Zadar

There is a little window in the attic of a Dalmatian villa from the early middle ages overlooking the dreamy cascade landscape of downtown Dubrovnik.

It's early June, 8 am. A melody of old Mediterranean terracotta roofs plunging into each other is nursing a soft morning light. The polyphony of ages embedded in the stone makes the town glow from its neutron core. No corners are mislaid, and the fortress is keeping us safe.

The window is slightly recessed, almost on the corner with Stradun, and a person with fine jumping skills could easily reach the roof of the church across the narrow street. It's Sunday, and the bells from the various towers across town are spilling their gongs.

I needed to sleep a bit more. But the grinding machinery of tourism has its own agenda. Savagely squeaking swallows and the morning congregations of seagulls sound like a pastorale compared to the town’s growling bowels. Air conditioning units, pumps, kitchen ventilation, garbage trucks, delivery vehicles, wheels, and trolleys of all sorts. I could not help but be fascinated by how a landscape of such beaming beauty can exist in this hideous soundscape.

In all of its ugliness, the soundscape of Dubrovnik still hides so much contemporaneity. The large ventilation unit drones are textural and multiphonic. Anarchy in the town’s electrical grid is constantly buzzing from nooks and crevices like some robo-brute. Sounds of the wagons for garbage collection, and the rivers of inbound and outbound suitcases are bouncing over the stone streets like a constant percussive development. I enjoyed it a lot.

But perhaps we should give it a second thought. The noise in which certain Mediterranean architectural marvels are soaked due to uncontrolled mass tourism is a “silent” killer. Of the environment, and of the local culture and dignity.

I stepped out of the building that morning, and straight in front of my nose on the neighbour’s door, there was a sign:

PLEASE KEEP SILENT. 

--
released June 18, 2023
all rights reserved

Štrada od Sigurate

“More Tuge / The Sea of Sorrow” elaborates on the fragility of ecosystems at the cost of human destruction, while capturing a paradox of desolate peace. Manja Ristić went to the Port of Gruž on the Adriatic Sea and recorded the underwater sound pollution of anchored boats with a hydrophone. Silver strands of notes are braided in the air with water burbling below, a pure midnight tranquility, before the grind of mechanical elements slowly enter the fold. We’re confronted with the effects personal leisure—yachts, boats, catamarans, and cruises—has on our environs, a tension capturing the fabric of joy and despair.

Published by objects & sounds, on compilation Seasonal Diary IV: Shadowed Embrace, among wonderful artists Haron Aumaj, Adriaan de Roover, Dania Paralaxe, and Mich Leemans.

Released December 1, 2023

Mastering by Mathieu Savenay
Artwork by Letterlik
Words by Allie Hatch

link > https://objectsandsounds.bandcamp.com/album/seasonal-diary-iv-shadowed-embrace

@objectsandsounds

Seasonal Diary IV: Shadowed Embrace

More Tuge / The Sea Of Sorrow

Hijos Del Mar

Mi Norte Es Tu Sur

Camino A La Verdad

Lo Tenga O No

Dance Monkey

Requiem for the undersea is a collection of works based on noise pollution observed at the heart of Korčula town in South Adriatic. Hydrophone recording sites are urban reconstruction sites, that comprehend undersea digging with heavy machinery, such as reconstruction of the West port as well as ACI marina docks. The recording of a forklift scrapping the sea bed, recording of a large pneumatic drill, the sound of pouring a large amount of concrete into the sea bed – are foundations of electro-acoustic constructs, which are further de-contextualized with musical appropriations of several objects treated as instruments: metal laundry dryer, cardboard tube, AM radio signals, electromagnetic waves from electrical outlets, etc. With additional field and hydrophone recordings from the sites: island of Vrnik, Ražnjić Lighthouse, Lenga open quarry, St. Nikola’s Monastery, as well as improvisational sequences on cello – the intention to capture the moments of anthropogenic impact evolves into anxious necrologies for the undersea.
https://manjaristic.bandcamp.com/album/requiem-for-the-undersea

Štrada od Sigurate

Manja Ristic