Making space for sound works one might initially consider unfinished, ephemeral, imperfect, mundane or even trivial, Les Archives de la Médiocrité aims at celebrating the leftovers of the artistic process: throw-outs, failures, and untracked sketches.

Forgotten treasures brought back to life from out-of-use hard drives, SD cards or magnetic tape as well as newly commissioned works form an (anti-)archive of the mediocre, shedding light on what most commonly remains unheard and unappreciated.

With »fanart2« by Spellcaster, the project sees its first manifestation in early 2022. Spellcaster is the solo moniker of Copenhagen-based vocalist, composer and producer holger hartvig, also known from collaborative projects such as Synd og Skam (Escho; Visage), Brynje (Visage) or boli group (Posh Isolation).

Médio 1, »a little piece of furniture music«, as the artist calls it, will be published as a very limited edition of one sided 12” dubplates and as digital audio file on March 22, 2022. 

les-archives-de-la-mediocrite.net

fanart2

Spellcaster: fanart2 (Médio 1)

A handbag purchased in Tokyo in the early 2000s reappears in the present, containing a series of personal items: a T-shirt, a CD, five cassettes, and three mini-DVs. Sifting through the material, Barbara Signer rediscovers all kinds of forgotten memories and hidden traces of the past. While the video cassettes were recorded in the streets of Tokyo at the turn of the millennium, the audio tapes contain music from Nick Kamen to Vivaldi, as well as the artist’s own voice, recorded directly to tape at the end of the 1980s.

On »Beams Boy,« Signer repurposes and reassembles the rediscovered materials. The first composition creates contrasts and tensions through rapid shifts, breaks, and movements reminiscent of Musique concrète and cut-up techniques. We're in the midst of a vibrant and unstabile soundscape, torn between different materialities and temporalities, encountering harmonies and vocal lines that we instantly recognize alongside sounds and noises that speak to us in other, less direct ways. Signer’s child voice guides us through this dense and chaotic sound world. Structuring and commenting on the material, the voice is a haunting presence, clearly located in another time and space, yet here, addressing us in the present.

While the first piece resembles the chaos and emotional overload of everyday life, with all its sounds, colors, smells, and physical encounters, the second composition leads us into a more dreamlike territory. A sense of calm sets in, the impressions of the day begin to be processed. A strangely soothing soundscape unfolds, where down pitched vocal recordings become groovy bass lines and effects-laden violas create a lulling, yet not entirely comforting atmosphere. The strange simultaneity of relaxation, contemplation, and eeriness feels like lying in bed at night, half awake, with traces of thoughts and memories wandering through before you finally drift off.

By evoking all sorts of states and feelings of becoming and finding oneself – euphoria, curiosity and desire, but also insecurity and lostness –, »Beams Boy« is not only a personal reflection on forgotten memories and vanished traces of the past. It also addresses the collective memory of growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s. The two pieces thus do not speak with a singular voice. Rather, they create spaces for different voices, both human and non-human, to overlap and mix. In the encounter, these different traces sometimes unite to form a duet or a chorus, while at other times they remain singular and fragmented. »Beams Boy« is an unfinished conversation, a story in the making, that invites us to listen, but also to participate with our own memories, feelings and images.

les-archives-de-la-mediocrite.net

Music by Barbara Signer
Mix by Marcel Gschwend
Thank you to: Carlos Hidalgo, Aleksandra & Roman Signer, Michael Bodenmann

Artwork by Laurin Huber
Inlay design by Kim Fiebiger & Raphael Wicki
Text by Laurin Huber

Supported by Stadt Zürich Kultur & Kultur St.Gallen Plus

Beams Boy

Barbara Signer: Beams Boy – B (Médio 2)

Making space for sound works one might initially consider unfinished, ephemeral, imperfect, mundane, or trivial, Les Archives de la Médiocrité aims at celebrating the leftovers of the artistic process: throw-outs, failures, and untracked sketches. Forgotten treasures, brought back to life from out-of-use hard drives, SD cards, or magnetic tape, as well as newly commissioned works, form an (anti-)archive that sheds light on what most commonly remains unheard and unappreciated.

Les Archives de la Médiocrité

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