Composition by Peter Herbert for Double Bass solo. Performed by Janko Hanushevsky on a 5-string Contrabass-Guitar by luthier Magnus Krempel

Nice Pizz

Composition by oud-player Marcel Khalife commissioned by upright bassist Peter Herbert. Performed by Janko on a 5-string acoustic Contrabass-Guitar by luthier Magnus Krempel.

solosolobass

The 20’ composition “still unhurt” is based on 20 real-time compositions we recorded in our studio during the first 20 days of the lockdown in March 2020. When listening back to the material we found life had left its traces in the music: moments of fear, helplessness, a lack of perspective and the complete collapse of our schedule.  But also a sense of slowing down, time for reflection about our buzzing, busy life, and a sense of warmth and family.  We created a sound-composition from that scource-material in April-May 2020 when we should have been at the international radio-festival Prix Marulic. As a hommage to the fact that Prix Marulic, hosted by Croatian broadcaster HRT at the island of Hvar was cancelled for the first time in 25 years, we asked Marija Pecnik Kvesic, an HRT-sound-engineer, if we could use her field-recordings of Hvar and combined them with our recordings of a mixed swallow-swift colony that returned from Africa to brood underneath our studio roof. The title is a reference to poet Joseph Kopf and his poem “still unhurt, but also already assaulted by breath”. Our composition was commissioned by HRT/ars acustica.

Still Unhurt 3

Still Unhurt 2

Still Unhurt 1

Excerpt from Merzouga's 2008 composition "Mekong Morning Glory" using field-recordings collected along the Mekong river in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam. Released by GRUENREKORDER 2011. 
http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=6205 

MEKONG MORNING GLORY by Merzouga Excerpt_Laos 2 (Gruenrekorder GRUEN092)

Excerpt from Merzouga's 2008 composition "Mekong Morning Glory" using field-recordings collected along the Mekong river in Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam. Released by GRUENREKORDER 2011. 

http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=6205

MEKONG MORNING GLORY by Merzouga Excerpt_Cambodia (Gruenrekorder GRUEN092)

Composition for electronics, prepared electric-bass and historic wax-cylinder-recordings of the Berlin Phonogram-Archive used with kind permission of the Berlin Phonogram-Archive, Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

Released on GRUENREKORDER. 

http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=11006

With kind support of SKE/austro mechana

Music for Wax-Cylinders (Gruenrekorder GRUEN124)

"De Rerum Natura-Dance of the Elements"  was commissioned by Finnsih National broadcaster Yleisradio. The piece is by sound-artists Eva Pöpplein and Janko Hanushevsky (aka Merzouga) is a poetic sonic translation of Lucretius’ (c. 99 – c. 55 BCE) natural philosophy. We encounter fragments of Lucretius’ didactic poem in English and in Latin intertwined with a complex ars acustica composition. Playfully translating his idea of the Dance of the Elements into an acoustic art form, the artists pay tribute to the philosopher’s ideas about the celebration of beauty and the pursuit of pleasure and joy through the fine arts. Speaker: Stefko Hanushevsky. CD-release by GRUENREKORDER (October 2018), Excerpt released on the WIRE Tapper 47 (August 2018).

De Rerum Natura - Dance Of The Elements By Merzouga (GRUEN 185)/Excerpt 1

Prepared Electric Diary - A collection of short pieces for prepared electric bass. All sounds in this piece were produced with two golf-balls and a pick on a Fender Jazzbass

Prepared Electric Diary

Two Golfballs and a Pick

Music for the radio drama production "Teure Schwalben" (DLF Kultur 2019), featuring Etienne Nillesen (extended snare-drum) & Janko Hanushevsky (electric bass). Composition: Janko Hanushevsky.

Teure Schwalben Melancholisch

Teure Schwalben Leichtigkeit

Teure Schwalben Jodler

Music for Theatre, motive from the 2020/21  production "Are we Ready", commissioned by the Berlin based theatre company Theatre Fragile.

Music for Theatre_Theatre Fragile_Clock is ticking

Track from Merzouga's 2020 collaboration with baritone Holger Falk, who invited the duo to produce electro-acoustic music from field-recordings of contemporary Venice to contrast and complement his historically informed recordings of gondoliere-songs from the 18th century with Nuovo Aspetto. Released 2020 by Prospero Classical

Il Gondoliere Veneziano

Malinconia

Track by Merzouga from the Noise of Cologne 2 compilation, released by a-musik

HARBOUR

Music for the radio drama "Der Dieb", featuring Leo Huhn (alto sax & analogue synthesizer) & Janko Hanushevsky (prepared electric bass), composed by Janko Hanushevsky, commissioned by DLF Kultur, directed by Heike Tauch.

Der Dieb - Turm

Der Dieb - Flashback

Continuing my Prepared Electric Diary here is a miniature composition performed on my electric bass, using an empty tea caddy (Earl Grey), and a knitting needle on a chilly November afternoon during the second lock-down in Cologne, fall 2020.

Teacaddy+Knitting Needle Melancholia

The misuse of an old rusty cookie box that was sorted out after Christmas led to the groove at the base of this track. On the first Sunday of the year that had spring-time temperatures I played two basses to that groove that circle through the warm air like butterflies. 

My Prepared Electric Diary is an ongoing research project documenting my efforts of creating new sounds on the electric bass by mechanical preparation.

Cookies Box (for Simon)

Merzouga is the duo of Cologne-based soundartists Eva Poepplein and Janko Hanushevsky. It is also a spot in the Sahara desert, where the two encountered the roaring silence of camel-flies and sand trickling down the dunes.

merzougamusic

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