Michał Libera – composition, libretto
Barbara Kinga Majewska – composition, voice

ODMA (in Polish odma means “pulmonary emphysema”) in live setting is a tableau vivant with a soundtrack based on the late Franz Kafka’s novel "Josephine, the Singer or The Mouse Folk", one of his most visionary sonic inquiries. It is a story of highly admired, as well as controversial singing-whistling virtuoso – Josephine, a mouse in the nation of mice, who is very likely not to have ever made any sound at all. ODMA is a study of her dubious talent. It takes into account biographical facts from Kafka’s late years when he was suffering from tuberculosis which strongly affected his speech. Visually, the performance is inspired by one of the photographs taken in the tuberculosis sanatorium. It captures a patient undergoing sun treatment – an enduring, everlasting, motionless process of curing one’s throat. ODMA turns it into a tableau vivant, in which one of the actors is an exquisite Polish singer, Barbara Kinga Majewska.

ODMA [Excerpt]

Sociologist working in sound and music field since 2003, recently involved mostly in producing and staging sound essays and other experimental forms of radio art and opera which brought him to collaborate with Martin Küchen, Pete Simonelli, Ralf Meinz, Komuna// Warszawa, Hilary Jeffery, Apartment House and others; producer of conceptual pop label Populista dedicated to mis- and over- interpretation of music as well as series of reinterpretations of music made in Polish Radio Experimental Studio (Bôłt Records); curator of various concerts, festivals and anti-festivals and music programs for exhibitons; member of art group called „Grupa Budapeszt”.

ODMA [Excerpt]

Michal Libera