"waterlilies in fontiform" [framework editions, 2023] 🪷

Such an honor to be part of framework radio’s seasonal issues with a new piece of fontiform music! 

> listen/download: frameworkeditions.bandcamp.com/album/framework-seasonal-issue-14-summer-2023

Thought as a continuation of the work "for scarpa's fountains” [forms of minutiae, 2020], the composition "waterlilies in fontiform" weaves field recordings made in, on, and around the Tomba Brion in San Vito d'Altivole. Designed by the Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa in the 70s, this burial ground materializes as a garden guided by a multitude of lines made of concrete, metal, marble, and glass. Yet as one wanders in this peculiar landscape, one soon realizes that concrete isn’t the tomb’s primary material, water is. As if submerged, the graves are encircled by basins interconnected by a network of fountains, rivulets, and pipes. Water striders, sporadic frogs, vibrant fish and tapestries of waterlilies glide over sunken pyramidal stepped edges, echoing ruins of bygone architectures. An aqueous rhizome at the heart of the garden which steers us through the whole sanctuary. The composition brings listeners into the various materialities of the space and the underwater hums of the fontiform network's machinery. Moreover, subtle algae photosynthesis, muffled voices of human visitors, and the garden's avian inhabitants infuse with life the architect's carefully organized matter. Ambiguous feelings arise as if perched in equilibrium on the crests of the tomb's multifarious structures. The piece ends with openings (both geographical and temporal) as the uncanny murmurs of the flowing waters are joined by the drones of another (temporary) Venetian fountain, Claire Tabouret's sculpture "Deux Baigneuses'', before fading into the vespertine soundscape of a small Portuguese village. A midwife toad calls in the darkness, bells resound in a valley, as Brion Tomb’s architectonic specter lingers in the flowing waters.

> Note: Tomba Brion is also the resting place of Scarpa himself, who shared that "the place for the dead is a garden".

> Recorded in the Tomba Brion in Altivole (april 2022), Palazzo Cavanis in Venice (april 2022), and in Peneda-Gerês National Park (may 2023).
Recorded with Aquarian H2a-XLR hydrophone, LOM Uši Pro, LOM Geofón, SoundDevices MixPre-6 II, Sony PCM-D100.

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waterlilies in fontiform [framework editions]

tuned to various biomes and phonographies 𓆏
> www.pablodiserens.studio
> co-founder @forms-of-minutiae

Pablo Diserens (they/them) is a field recordist, musician and artist devoted to non-human realities, attentive listening, and possible forms of interspecies coexistence.

New tracks tagged #carloscarpa