Desiderium Animae

I dedicate Desiderium Animae in loving memory of a dear friend and mentor Nataša Jovanović, professor of violoncello and chamber music from Belgrade, who left us too soon.

On October 31st I accidentally discovered Tunnel Grič in central Zagreb. It is 1 kilometer long WWII air-raid shelter, now a pedestrian tunnel recently reopened for the public after being sealed for decades.

This is the integral field recording of my first encounter with the tunnel and its incredible acoustics, interacting with passers-by, examining its sonic properties, feeling its dense memory field, while walking up and down and holding the recorder in my hand.

The recording is later enriched by minimal ambient interventions.

Released November 14, 2021

Radio drama: Eskulap - anatomska eks mašina

Radio drama Eskulap – anatomska eks mašina nastala je prema satiričnom rimovanom epu, napisanom u aprilu 2020. godine, za vreme policijskog časa u Srbiji. Ima uporište u realnim događajima vezanim za pandemiju, ali je i fantazmagorični prikaz sveopšte situacije na prostoru Balkana.

Najveći deo radnje je hermetičan, odnosno smešten na srednjovekovni dvor i u dvorsku kosturnicu u doba pandemije, a obuhvata period od 13. veka, do dana današnjeg. Realni likovi, kojima je tekst inspirisan, pretočeni su u nekakve dvorske arhetipove kao što su: lekar, car, sveštenik, dvorska dama, dvorska luda, ministar vojni, lakej, kovač, pustolov zatočen u buretu i šišmiš. Ovih deset upečatljivih likova interpretira dvoje glumaca koristeći širok opseg glasovnih tehnika, podržan eksperimentalnom kompozicijom utemeljenoj u atmosferskim fragmentima terenskog zvuka, improvizacionim sekvencama i droničnoj dramaturgiji, kao i u bogatoj arhivi music concrete intervencija snimljenih specijalno za ovu priliku.

Radio drama donosi izuzetno jaku humornu notu, elemente horora, ali svakako, kao i svaka satira, na kraju ipak ostavlja gorak ukus realnosti.

Tekst i koncept: Mila Manojlović
Izvedba: Mila Manojlović, Nesim Hrvanović
Kompozicija i dizajn zvuka: Manja Ristić
Snimatelji zvuka: Igor Bulović, Igor Lončar (Studio Wave)
Mastering: La Plant Studio
Ko-produkcija: Sonja Leboš
Naslovna ilustracija: Marko Banićević
Produkcija: Studio ELL Korčula, 2021

Realizacija je podržana od strane Ministarstva kulture Republike Hrvatske

media >>> Slobodna Dalmacija, Radio Korčula, Abraš Radio

Lost In Renaissance

Mixtape composed out of the material performed at the Lost In Renaissance Festival, Korčula island - August 2021.

Closing track credits: kLIMEK & Marta Collica & Manja Ristić “Don’t Kill The Animals”, from the soundtrack to the 2011 WDR3 radio feature “MESSERSCHLEIFEN”.

Melantonia Live Series

 

very pleased and honored to be published on Berlin-based Melantónia Live Series, with an hour-long sonic journey including some of my favorite memories translated into sound, but also highlighting an important event - TV appearance of my dearest friend, activist Radomir Lazovic confronting corrupted media as well as a government representative who was involved in a criminal act of threatening and beating elderly citizens in Serbia for refusing to accept food stamps and similar bribe in exchange for their votes. such acts of courage and Radomir's sincere everyday activism directed toward building a better society is a great inspiration and the place of strength from which we are positioning ourselves as responsible and proactive individuals in confronting corruptive mechanisms deeply embedded in the state structures. the clip of the TV debate starts on the 24th minute of the composition.

Graditeljice Maestrala / The Shipbuilders of the Mistral

Manja Ristic · Graditeljice Maestrala / The Shipbuilders of the Mistral

The Shipbuilders of the Mistral is a collaborative project conceptualized and written by Dijana Protić, further developed into VR installation by Marta Stražičić, visuals, and Manja Ristić, sound. 

For the past three years, the emphasis of interdisciplinary research around the industrial heritage of the island of Korčula has been placed on the important case study - the Greben shipyard in Vela Luka. Dijana Protić's artistic research began in 2017 with a focus on women's perspectives and work experience in Greben, and the backbone of the research was set by the stories of women former Greben workers. Although the initial idea was to turn the research into a film, the medium of the VR installation soon proved to be an important new element for deepening the theme and possible interpretation of the shipyard's "silenced" female history. 

 A female voice in local dialect guides us through the exploration of the abstracted space of Greben. Her memory intertwines personal and professional stories of former female workers in Greben, with a special emphasis on work in the so-called plastics, a key area in which women were mostly employed. The project raises awareness of the extremely health-vulnerable and unprotected position that women were in. At the same time, we learn about the micro experiences of emancipation and financial independence that women gained while working in Greben. In addition, it alludes to the relevance of the women's collective, both in joint women's work and the interpersonal support that such a community creates. (Lea Vene) 

initial presentation GMK Zagreb

video teaser >>> here <<<

Author: Dijana Protić 

Curator: Lea Vene 

Art director, modeler and VR technician: Marta Stražičić 

Sound & composition: Manja Ristić 

Narration voice: Marija Borovičkić 

Design: Andrija Mudnić 

Sound mastering: La Plant Studio, Belgrade

Project supported by: The City of Zagreb, Ministry of Culture Republic of Croatia,
Dubrovačko-neretvanska County

Production: GMK Zagreb, gray) (area, Format C & Sintoment

The Desire of My Heart

 

THE DESIRE OF MY HEART - conceptualized for RADIA FM Network which involves broadcasts on over 40 radio stations globally, and published on SIRR.ECORDS from Portugal.

The Desire of My Heart is a collection of intimate interventions extracted from my daily life and observations of my immediate environment from the perspective of transcendental attuning. On the trace of early 20th century esoteric practices of automatic painting and writing, I build a meta-narrative in three stages, using field recordings, sonification, and improvisation on amplified objects, as well as exploring and manipulating basic frequencies from electrical fields.

Instruments used –
thick jar with the ice cubes
broken radio receiver inside the thick jar with the ice cubes
home fan
radio receiver tuning to an FM scale (excerpts from HRT3 programme about WWII)
wheelchair wheel salvaged from shallow waters in the Adriatic played with wooden sea debris, electrical coffee mixer, soft xylophone stick, and a pine cone
radio receiver placed on the wheelchair wheel
cardboard tube rubbed against a window
refrigerator
kitchen sink
stones rubbed with the soft xylophone stick
baby megaphone toy

field recordings –
Poreč marina, ventilation behind the restaurant in the park (June 2021)
hydrophone and field recorder buried in the stranded sediments of a dry Posidonia Oceanica algae, Good Waters bay, Silba Island (July 2021)
St. Marco’s Cathedral church bells, Korcula town (December 2020)
instrumental excerpt from the Depression for the Bass Clarinet graphic score, interpretation Vasa Vuckovic (April 2018)

All sounds gathered, played, and edited by Manja Ristić
contact mic & hydrophone built by Jez riley French
Mastering La Plant Studio Mixing and Mastering Belgrade

Songs of the North

The largest sonic body of this collection belongs to the island of Silba, to its wilderness and uniqueness. It is a continuation of the Silba Sound Map I started in 2019, initiated by SEA Silba Environment Art.
www.silba-environment-art.hr

Other than the magic of Silba, on my way there I recorded the Neretva river in Mostar, letting hydrophone into the strong whirls under the Bunur bridge while participating in the project Toxic Lands curated by Armina Pilav.

I also picked some noises from catamaran Biševo, and a ferry boat cutting the horizon on the route Split – Vela Luka. The sea organ in Zadar, and some sailboat masts singing in the wind in Poreč marina too.

released July 30, 2021

All sounds and images by Manja Ristic
JrF hydrophone and contact mic
Mastering La Plant Studio Belgrade
Supported by SEA Silba Environment Art

That which eyes cannot see: Symbolism in conceptual listening

 

20 Seconds Magazine ISSUE 3 came out on July 5th, 2021, with contributions by Abdullah Miniawy, Aldo Tambellini, Alma Đelić, Atelier Impopulaire, Authored Landscapes, Cedrik Fermont, Khyam Allami, Manja Ristić, Vasilis Botoulas, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Temps Zero.

my essay ~ That which eyes cannot see: Symbolism in conceptual listening ~ puts the postures of listening in an anthropological evolutionary context, and in relation to symbolism and the notion of collective memory. the essay is embodied by collaborative series of sounds for drawings "Searching for the Cohenian Crack", which I am developing with Vasilis Botoulas.
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152 pages, Perfect bound, Softcover

kairos & the dwellers [forms of minutiae]

 

for their second release, the Berlin-based label forms of minutiae present "kairos & the dwellers", a dronesque and hydrophonic electroacoustic album by field recordist and sound artist Manja Ristić. 

album's major reviews and coverage:

Daily Bandcamp, interview by Andra Nikolayi

A Closer Listen, review by Richard Allen

The Wire: Adventures In Modern Music, review by Julian Cowley

Fluid Radio, interview by Gianmarco Del Re

RTS Radio Belgrade 3, review by Ksenija Stevanović

The LP is made of five tracks through which she approaches the Adriatic wilderness by deploying her tools and processes for attentive listening in pursuit of sparking sensory dialogues with the surrounding biomes.

the release (vinyl & digital) you can listen & order as well as read about the project on publisher's Bandcamp: f-o-m.bandcamp.com/album/kairos-the-dwellers

Drugstore Club / Mutant Radio take over / mixtape by Manja R

Patient Love / collaboration with Lazar Aleksandar

 

Released April 2nd, 2021

The work Patient Love is a live-set recording conceptualized for To Be Continued 2021 Music Marathon, an original concert lasting 24 hours, during which Stazione di Topolo is broadcasting live sets from many countries worldwide. The initiative is under the aegis of the Global Health Incubator, established in July 2009 in Topolò by Dr. Mario Raviglione, today professor in Global Health at the University of Milan, to create links between the world of creativity and that of science.

Lifting this work further, I invited multi-talented artist Aleksandar Lazar to contemplate ambient visuals for the sonic scaffolding of the Patient Love, as we already did together several times in the past through concert performances; employing intuitive composing, improvisation, live cinema, and inexhaustible source of audio-visual magic – a cymatic sand plate.

Furthermore, in the days that followed, I landed on a few hydrophone recordings that inspired me deeply to contemplate the intensity of our inner dynamics in times of pandemic despair and uncertainty, conceptualizing the work Water.

Since the date of the release is Autism Acceptance Day, I dedicate this work to my son Luka.

Framework Radio #752

our springtime edition present Manja Ristić, Pierrot Desperes, Beatriz Ferreyra, Natasha Barrett, Dave Phillips, Cain Blanchard, and recent uploads to the aporee maps. almost everything in this edition has been self-released on Bandcamp (apart from the one split LP, which is also available for listening digitally on Bandcamp).

for full program notes see: https://frameworkradio.net/2021/04/752-2021-04-11/

Searching for the Cohenian Crack [Manja Ristić & Vasilis Bόtoulas]

The growing body of work is a collaboration with Vasilis Bόtoulas, a linesmith, dotsmith, repetitionist from Greece, whose work is a radiant example of transcending the visual perception into a multisensory experience. In this series that involves “sounds for drawings”, we are producing joint compositions that reflect social trauma as well as a trauma of the landscape, specifically one that occurred during the wildfires in the Attica region of Greece in 2018. The direful event escalated into an unprecedented loss of human life and an environmental devastation that has changed both the natural and urban landscape forever.

With the means of experimental sound art, soundscape composition, raw field recording, conceptual and minimalistic drawing, we are sculpting out of our memories, looking for the tactile edges of the past's phantasmagoria, searching for that fine Cohenian crack.