genesis

 

In its fifth year, the traditional January 27th release spirals around Mark Vernon’s birthday. Interestingly, the "year one" occurred just a few weeks before we began communicating. As with many occasions, we can wonder whether it was precognition or coincidence.

Luckily, the 21st century is exciting for its exponential progress in theoretical science, researching those "hard questions" –– the origin of consciousness, memory, the fabric of space, interconnectedness, synchronicity, telepathy, the origin of life, and the nature of gravity and dark energy, and as some of the most progressive thinkers on the planet suggest –– it seems that we are well-soaked in a Sonic Universe that organizes and underlies everything!

Happy birthday to the sound wizard Mark Vernon!

--

[start quote] In this chapter, we postulate an integral concept of information processing in the universe, on the basis of a new biophysical principle, coined the generalized music (GM)-scale of EMF frequencies. Meta-analyses of current biomedical literature revealed the presence of a distinct pattern of discrete EMF frequency bands in a wide range of animate and non-animate systems. The underlying algorithm of harmonic solitonic waves provided a novel conceptual interface between living and non-living systems being of relevance for the areas of brain research as well as biological evolution. We hold that nature is guided by resonating quantum entities related to quantum vacuum fluctuations of an imminent zero-point energy (ZPE) field, also regarded as a superfluid quantum space (SQS). Since the whole human organism, including the brain is embedded in this dynamic energy field, a pilot wave guided supervenience of brain function is conceived. Conversely, the brain may write discrete informational states into the ZPE field as individual memory traces. Both information fluxes may be related to a holofractal memory workspace, associated with, but not reducible to the brain, that operates as a scale-invariant mental attribute of reality. Our concept, therefore, addresses the earlier postulated “hard problem” in consciousness studies. The proposed field-receptive workspace, integrates past and (anticipated) future events and may explain overall ultra-rapid brain responses as well as the origin of qualia. Information processing in the brain is shown to be largely facilitated by propagation of hydronium (proton/water) ions in aqueous compartments. The hydronium ions move freely within a hexagonally organized H2O lattice, providing a superconductive integral brain antenna for receiving solitonic wave information according to the Schrödinger wave equation. The latter quantum process enables an ultra-rapid soliton/biophoton flux that may orchestrate overall brain binding and the creation of coherent conscious states. In a cosmological context, we envision a scale-invariant information processing, operating through a toroidal/wormhole operator at the interface of our 4D world and acoustic phase space. We submit that the resulting meta-language is instrumental in a partially guided evolution and the creation of first life. The central message provided here describes intrinsic cosmic connectivity that is mirrored in the human brain. This implies that sentience exists on infinite scales, on the basis of an electromagnetic signature of the universe which reveals a musical master code. [end quote]

Abstract from the paper “8. Biophysics of Consciousness: A Scale-Invariant Acoustic Information Code of a Superfluid Quantum Space Guides the Mental Attribute of the Universe”

Authors: Dirk K. F. Meijer, Igor Jerman, Alexey V. Melkikh, Valeriy I. Sbitnev

Published in: Rhythmic Oscillations in Proteins to Human Cognition

Publisher: Springer Singapore

--

Released January 27, 2025

Recorded, edited, and composed by Manja Ristić.

Field recording of popping algae made by Joana Guerra in Barreiro, Portugal.

Field recordings of bat swarms, various cicadas, and an underwater reef made by Mark Vernon in various locations in Thailand.

Instruments used include violin, EMS Synthi 100, JrF hydrophones, and JrF contact mics.

Locations include Montreal, Canada; Nazare and Barreiro, Portugal; Isle of Arran, Scotland; the islands of Vrnik, Mljet, and Silba, Croatia; Harrachstal, Austria; various locations around Thailand; Lago Miraflores, Panama; and Avala Mountain, Serbia.

--

Mastering: Goran Simonoski / La Plant Studio

Cover image: Žarka Radoja, the dunes of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil

Cover art: Manja Ristić

--

For Mark

Meandri

We are thrilled to present the premiere of "Meandri" — a collaborative radiophonic composition by Mark Vernon and myself, on Radio Belgrade 3. This piece is the outcome of our residency at the Electronic Studio, where we worked on the legendary EMS Synthi 100.

Saturday, 21.12.2024, tune in at 22:20 CET on Channel 3

Many thanks to the most wonderful editor Ksenija Stevanović for this opportunity!

Happy Solstice and may the light prevail.

About the work "Meandri" read in the announcement 

As the artists say, “Meandri” is a collaborative radiophonic composition that emerged from live mixing during a four-day residency at the Electronic Studio, using various materials collected in Belgrade. It represents a diverse approach to the complex analogue system of the EMS Synthi 100. The material they collected is varied — from experiments and explorations of drone and ambient sequences to processed field recordings and intuitive patch-making in the here and now, akin to playing 'four hands' on the EMS Synthi 100. The complex, meditative landscapes resulting from these sessions reflect their relationship with analogue sound, as well as the application of different listening techniques.

Before us is a composition that unfolds spontaneously and fluidly, revealing all the magic of captured and released moments. This is a kind of lucid dreaming about Belgrade, a small étude on the art of 'memory in sound,' where each recorded material is both an archival entry and an urgent need to capture and transform something that would otherwise escape. Above all, the composition “Meandri” by Mark Vernon and Manja Ristić is a poetic image of the highest order, in sound, which we can surrender to through listening and our own internal metamorphosis. What remains and what disappears are captured in the magic of the sound play.

Editor Ksenija Stevanović

 

MULTIPHONIES 24-25 at INA GRM

Save the date!

On April 25th, 2025, as part of the MULTIPHONIES 24-25 program at the renowned INA GRM in Paris, Manja Ristić and Anja Lauvdal will present an electro-acoustic performance titled "From Island to Island," specially designed for an immersive setup.

Be there!

 

Prekrasna

“Prekrasna” is a mono-drama based on the story of Baba Yaga. Young actress Melody Martišković narratively enters the folk tale “Vasilisa the Beautiful” to express a deeply intimate and dramatic experience.

Premiere: December 12 and 13, 2024, at 9 PM 

Venue: Studio EXIT, Gundulićeva 37/1, Zagreb

Production: Četveroruka

Performance: Melody Martišković 

Direction and dramaturgy: Marina Petković Liker 

Dramaturgy: Maja Sviben 

Scenography and costume: Ana Paulić 

Composition and sound design: Manja Ristić 

Sound editing: Luka Gamulin

By analyzing the story of Vasilisa the Beautiful and then drawing from her own experiences, reflections, and archetypal dreams, which serve as subtext and internal content, the performer delves deep into the issues faced by a young woman. The inner conflicts, obstacles, and doubts she encounters are the main motivators for engaging with this text and story, which only confirms that this turmoil and challenges have existed for ages. Observing the girls and women around her and conversing with them, the performer realizes she is not the only one who shares this problem. Becoming aware of the context in which we live and view the world through the lens of the current political and cultural situation, she understands that this performance already has its context and framework.

FRAGMENTATION: LAYERING OF TIME AND SPACE

        

Gallery of Contemporary Art Pančevo

Opening: 2 December 2024, at 7 p.m.

Artists: Igor Bošnjak (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Anica Vučetić, diSTRUKTURA, Aleksandar Lazar and Manja Ristić, Nemanja Nikolić, Marija Ćalić (Serbia), Michael Coldwell (Great Britain).

Artists Selector and Curator: Nina Todorović, PhD in Arts

Program organizer and Gallery Director: Ivana Markez Filipović

The FRAGMENTATION: LAYERING OF TIME AND SPACE exhibition aims to bring together artists around the issue of transformations related to memory and the immediate environment, what memory is today, and how we position ourselves concerning memory in social contexts and within the framework of urban settings. The relationships between concepts, such as analogue-digital, presence-absence, true-false, history-present, and establishment-denial of the system are indispensable... The concept of time nowadays has a special meaning, because no matter what we do, we have less and less time available. By speeding up, we gain productivity, but we lose the segment of thinking and thorough analysis of the situations from multiple perspectives. The measure of understanding reality becomes/remains a combination of zeros and ones. The phenomena resulting from all this can be complicated and confusing.

Glitch, as a software error, gains visibility through art and thus becomes not only a new aesthetic field but also a conceptual category. Glitch can be viewed and understood more broadly; it spreads its influence in different narratives, re-examines the past, redefines the present, and pervades static and moving images. In other words: did something happen, how did it happen, how is it recorded and is it recorded/remembered at all?

Thanks to databases and the influence of artificial intelligence in everyday life, there is growing attention to how certain data is read and understood. This is why fractures, anomalies, deviations, and fragmentations become significant because, through different artistic practices, we arrive at the visualization and context of the eternally dominant question of where we are and what we are in our environment. Are we establishing a new dynamic structure and potentially new social values? Do we need to understand the software or is it the vision that drives us to explore further and shape the world as it is or as it should be? These are all questions that we want to point out or explain through the FRAGMENTATION project and recent artistic productions across various artistic media.

Synaptic Reveries

Manja Ristić and Mario Kolarić have collaborated numerous times in the field of experimental audio-visual arts, including performative interventions, exhibition works, and digital releases. Their new collaboration is symbolically inspired by the synaptic space — a scientific model of synapse function where "communication" between two neurons occurs, a space for information exchange essential for most subsequent functions of the nervous system. Ultimately, the context of their work relies on the concept of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who extensively studied the state of ataraxia — a state of lucid calmness. This complex ancient philosophical concept has various interpretations, and "Synaptic Reveries" aligns with those that bring mental-emotional balance and support sensory ecologies opposing the cacophony of everyday life, informational saturation, and the commercialization of human perception and attention.

What happens in the synaptic space and how does it function?

"During a chemical synapse, the neuron transmitting the information (presynaptic) releases a substance, in this case, a neurotransmitter, through the synaptic knob, releasing it into the synaptic space, also known as the synaptic cleft. Following this, the postsynaptic neuron, equipped with specific receptors for each neurotransmitter, receives the information through dendrites. The electron microscope has revealed that the communication between neurons does not involve direct contact but rather occurs in a space where neurotransmitters are released. Each neurotransmitter has different effects that further influence the functioning of the nervous system.”

Manja and Mario's creative approach meets in synesthetic minimalism — her spontaneous need to "sound" his drawings and his deep dedication to the resonant nature of the image. Observing Mario's works, Manja perceives them without hesitation as graphic and/or abstract scores; listening to Manja's music, Mario effortlessly creates illustrations. Their collaborative work "Synaptic Reveries" aims to create an audio-visual piece that generates a sensory experience, counteracting robust auditory and visual saturation of contemporary lifestyle. Additionally, it addresses the potential of audio-visual installations in working with neurodivergent and sensory-sensitive individuals and explores the sensorial qualities of minimalism in inter-media artistic practice.

"Synaptic Reveries" contribute to the anxious discourse about the Anthropocene, highlighting the importance of sensorial and spatial ecology and questioning what inter-species interaction—and even further, human-technological interactivity based on daily artificial intelligence use—brings to the "space" of exchange, and more importantly, what it leaves behind.

--

Mario Kolarić is a visual artist, born in 1984 in Belgrade, who grew up in Osijek and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb in 2010. He has been a member of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists in Zagreb since 2010. Since 2022, he has been a member of La Maison des Artistes, France. He works in the field of drawing, objects, and installations, examining the relationship to the image, written record, and time. He has had ten solo and several group exhibitions in the Balkans and Europe. He currently lives and works in Paris, France.

Manja Ristić and Mario Kolarić have been collaborating since 2019.

All sounds recorded & composed by Manja Ristić

All visual content by Mario Kolarić

Text by Manja Ristić

Mastering by Goran Simonoski / La Plant Studio

The project is supported by the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Department of Education, Culture, and Sports.

Evening of audio-visual art

As part of an evening of audio-visual art, Manja Ristić will present significant collaborations in the field of ambient installations, inspired by the exploration of the soundscapes of the underwater and above-water environments of the islands of Korčula, Mljet, and Silba, as well as other regions like the Atlantic Ocean. During the one-hour program, we will listen to and watch the installations: "Synaptic Reveries" (co-author Mario Kolarić), "Good Water" (co-author Aleksandar Lazar), "Calypso's Dream" (co-author Mark Vernon), and "Patient Love" (co-author Aleksandar Lazar).

Centre for Culture Korčula

November 25th, 2024 at 19:00

Free entrance

The program is supported by the Centre for Culture Korčula and the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Department of Education, Culture, and Sports.

Program: 

Synaptic Reveries (premiere) —— Manja Ristić & Mario Kolarić (11') 

Dobra Voda —— Manja Ristić & Aleksandar Lazar (19') 

Calypso's Dream —— Manja Ristić & Mark Vernon (15') 

Patient Love —— Manja Ristić & Aleksandar Lazar (25')

About the work "Synaptic Reveries" 

Manja Ristić and Mario Kolarić have collaborated several times in the field of experimental audio-visual arts, including performative interventions, exhibition works, and digital releases. The new collaboration involves the production of a digital release, symbolically inspired by the synaptic space – a scientific model of synapse function where the "communication" between two neurons takes place, a space where information exchange occurs, which is a process any subsequent psychophysical action depends on. 

The creative approach of Manja and Mario meets in synesthetic minimalism, her almost organic need to "sound" his drawings, and his deep dedication to the resonant nature of the image. Observing Mario's works, Manja perceives them without hesitation as graphic and/or abstract scores; listening to Manja's music, Mario effortlessly creates illustrations. 

Ultimately, the context in which the work is created relies on the concept of the Greek philosopher Epicurus, who extensively studied the state of ataraxia – a state of lucid calmness. This complex ancient philosophical concept has various meanings, and "Synaptic Reveries" will adhere to those that bring mental-emotional balance and support sensory ecologies that oppose the cacophony of everyday life, informational saturation, and the commercialization of human perception and attention. 

"Synaptic Reveries" is our contribution to the anxious discourse of the Anthropocene and the "noise of the world" due to rapid technological evolution, which alludes to the importance of spatial ecology and raises not only the question of what a human or interspecies interaction, even further, human-technological interactivity based on artificial intelligence, actually brings into the "space" of exchange but, above all, what it leaves behind.

Welcome!!!

MMSU Rijeka

ph Sanja Prodan

The micro-festival "Tenzije" celebrates the fifth anniversary of avant-garde sonic narratives in Rijeka. At the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, we will host live performances by sound artist Manja Ristić, and visual artist Branimir Štivić, along with intro & outro sets by the resident of the program —— di.merkla.

November, 2nd // 20:00 // Entrance is free. 

The event is co-financed by the City of Rijeka and the Ministry of Culture and Media of Croatia. 

il Presidente

November 4th, 7 pm, Apollo111 Teatrul / Bucharest / Free entrance

Sonic Sports —— program curated by Anamaria Pravicencu and produced by SEMI SILENT, offers a wide spectrum of voices and sounds of bodies in sports, in full action, from the gallery or from behind the remote control... In the form of a composed and improvised choir, the participants of the vocal expression workshop with sounds (and voices) from sports, coached and directed by Cristian Fierbinteanu will open the Sound Games with and about Sports!

The first piece in the listening program is "il Presidente" by Manja Ristić, a work about childhood memories that haunt her relationship with sport —— a sound documentary about the Yugoslavian tradition of water polo, and about her father, a legendary figure of the '60s and '70s.

Project organized by AFCN and co-financed by SEMI SILENT

Art direction and coordination: Anamaria Pravicencu

Graphic design: Eleni Dafini Bacula

 

Palma Ars Acustica 2024

 

October 26th, Croatian premiere of the radiophonic piece "Rituals in Transfigured Time", a finalist of the Palma Ars Acustica 2024 —— tune in at 23:00 CET

Announcement 

Podcast

The work “Rituals in Transfigured Time" is made of field recordings from across Yugoslavia, from pristine nature to intoxicated lands and waters, memorial sites, abandoned military compounds, factories, and mines; analogue instruments, found sounds, radio appropriations; the cylinder archive of the National Library of Serbia, and voices long gone and forgotten. More about the work.

Authors: Manja Ristić & Marko Paunović
Editor HRT 3 Ars Acustica: Adriana Kramarić
Commission: Radio Belgrade 3
Editors: Ksenija Stevanović, Dragan Mitrić

Dew — Okla Records

Manja Ristić crafts two long-form compositions that evoke dusty memories of formative days, filled with promise and trepidation. These glacial arrangements on EMS Synthi 100 and processed violin are punctuated with field and hydrophone recordings from places on the threshold of mnemotopia, deeply personal, yet so universal. The strength of a mother’s hug, her velvety voice echoing among the quiet new reality; rain falling gently over the gravel between the train tracks; a soothing hum of distant landscapes; the secret life of ants, or the mysterious underwater sounds, in unison – an atomic structure of memory, dense and unique, slowly emerging through the veils of one’s psyche.

“Like morning dew, after the witching hour.”

Manja has prepared a lovely story delving deeper into the origins of the album, the memories unearthed and stirred after laying dormant for years. You can read it here: tiny.cc/Dew-Story

Releases November 15, 2024

Instruments used: EMS Synthi 100 and violin;
Field & hydrophone recordings: Vienna train station; 

Pohořský rybník lake on the Czech–Austrian borderlands; 

Front yard of the Church of the Mother of God on the Lake – Bled, Slovenia; 

Behind the Monument erected in memory of the Antifascist fighters of Korčula Island, by architect Bernardo Bernardi.

Mastering by Goran Simonoski / La Plant Studio 

Design & layout by Michał Kęskiewicz

Manja Ristić & Tomáš Šenkyřík – Vstal

Vstal is a collection of seven songs created in a dialogue between the experimentalist and composer Manja Ristić and the meticulous observer and field recorder Tomáš Šenkyřík. The album takes listeners on a journey across the European continent, from Ristić’s home on the Adriatic coast to the Czech-Austrian borderlands and the Moravian floodplain forests, which have long inspired Tomáš Šenkyřík’s sonic explorations. This broad scope, sensitively linking the soundscapes of both artists’ homelands, is an expansive vision of the possibilities of field recording and its relationship to place and its memory.

Here, hydrophonic recordings of sea urchins are juxtaposed with the sounds of the everyday, materialised in the electromagnetic hum of Manja Ristić’s kitchen appliances, while surgically precise recordings of the soundscapes of old-growth forests merge with the otherworldly sounds of NASA satellite communications. Together they dialogue with occasional vocals, violin improvisation, and sounds from Belegrad’s legendary EMS Synthi 100.

The intimate here informs the hyper-local, and then the cosmic, which travels back to communicate the political as well as the aesthetic through a subtle and poetic language, considering the interconnectedness of all sound worlds. The tender, almost sobbing poetics of the vocals in Pátek Sobota recalls an old folk song that sings of water in the land of Rusava, the content of which, due to climate change, no longer corresponds to the current state of the landscape. Similarly, the composition Čudna šuma, accompanied by the eponymous poem, speaks of a human swallowed by the ground in an unknown, alien forest, as a memorial to all the bodies lost on the Balkan migration route.

The presence of these meanings here is not a rigid axis, however, but only one of many ways to read the relationships between the songs and their sounds. This allows the listener to wander, to get lost, and to find their own way back, not only through different geographies but also through intimate and emotional terrains.

The Vstal aesthetic presents music composition, field recording, and experimentation as a critical practice capable of reflecting on complex socio-ecological issues. It is precisely by expanding the notion of ‘field’ that Ristić and Šenkyřík have created a body of work that presents sonic practice as a way of knowing and being in the world. As Ristić says, this album is a record of a shared experience and a relationship between two people who are deeply driven by a love of nature, its sounds, and humanity that transcends geographical and cultural distances. In this relationship, they share stories of their land and its past, creating imaginary soundscapes that speak to the listener in familiar tongues.

(Ján Solčáni)

Limited Edition Cassette + Digital Album

Releases October 24, 2024
Recorded and mixed by Manja Ristić and Tomáš Šenkyřík
Design by Ján Solčáni
Words by Manja Ristić and Ján Solčáni
Mastered by Filip Johánek
Released by Skupina as SKPN010 in 2024

Bojana Robinson: Mašina

The "Machine" is a duet by Bojana, a choreographer and dancer, and a breathing machine occasionally used by her daughter. Although the device is present due to the child's health condition, the author explores her personal relationship with the technological aid that indirectly and directly affects her life. She questions the nature of the machine, how it becomes the subject of the performance, and how the relationship between the device and the human can be embodied.

The machine is an intermediary. Machine is a source of fear and discomfort, but also a source of safety and freedom. The machine evokes emotions and demands them.

Dvorana Duše Počkaj, Cankarijev Dom, Ljubljana

Premiere: October 18, at 8 PM; 

Repeats: October 19 and 20, at 8 PM; 

Choreographer and performer: Bojana Robinson 

Text author and dramaturge: Dimitrije Kokanov 

Set designer and videographer: Dorian Šilec Petek 

Music: Manja Ristić 

Costume designer: Timotej Rosc 

Light designer: Igor Remeta 

Narrator: Polona Juh 

Movement consultant: Kaja Lorenci 

PR team: Paulina Pia Rogač and Tina Malenšek 

Photographer: Matt Robinson 

Production: Institute for Contemporary Artistic Practice and Theory 0.1 

Co-production: Cankarjev dom 

Co-organization: Society of Art and Culture 47, Vrhnika, DUM - Society of Artists, Ljubljana, Society for Cultural Production and Affirmation of Artistic Processes NAGIB, Maribor 

With financial support: Ministry of Culture RS and City Municipality of Ljubljana 

Thanks to: Pulmodata - Klavdija Ocepek Rožac and Marko Dovjak, HUD"O" Society 

Online media sponsor: Parada plesa

Sound Garden — Radio Alley, Art + Science Festival, Belgrade

“Rituals in Transfigured Time” a radiophonic work composed in collaboration with Marko Paunović, can be listened to as part of the Art+Science Festival at the "Jevremovac" Botanical Garden in Belgrade.

Marija Stojnić and Jakov Munižaba formed and edited the program and installations!

Creative support: Karkatag Collective

Sound Garden——Radio Alley is produced with 

The Center for the Promotion of Science, "Jevremovac" Botanical Garden, and Radio Belgrade.

In addition to “Rituals in Transfigured Time” which were finalists in this year’s radio competition The Prix Palma Ars Acustica, you will be able to hear works by Ljudmila Frajt, Paul Pignon, Svetlana Maraš, and Aleksandar Protić.

Announcement  Festival program

Opening Wednesday 25th at 18:00, "Jevremovac" Botanical Garden in Belgrade

The exhibition runs from 25.09. to 31.10., from 9:00 to 21:00

Orizont Sonor Festival

             

Silent Disco at the beach by the Black Sea! Come to the Orizont Sonor Festival in Constanța!!!

FACING THE HORIZON

On the sand by the sea, as the sun sets, face the horizon with an immersive silent disco of sound creations composed of Mark Vernon's "Hydrological Consequences" and Manja Ristić's "Dobra voda".

Date : 20/09/2024

Time : 18:45h

Place : meeting point at Biblioteca Ioan N. Roman

The event is free, the registration form

For its centenary year, the French Institute in Romania is launching Orizont Sonor – an innovative interdisciplinary project organized in cooperation with Longueur d'Ondes (France) – one of the largest radio and sound festivals in the world, which is in its 20th edition this year, and SEMI SILENT (Romania) – a podcast platform dedicated to sound creation, radio creation, and audio recordings.

The festival will take place from September 19th to 21st in Constanța.

More about the festival and full program can be found here

 

Akousma — International Festival Of Immersive Digital Music

Akousma —— International Festival Of Immersive Digital Music

20th edition: October 16-17-18 2024

Save the date! 

This fall the "ghosts" are traveling across the Ocean.

ghosts (2024) 20’

How do we approach the landscape of severe devastation and a dense history of warfare?

In the work ghosts I am using obsolete instruments – a modular synthesizer EMS Synthi 100, a discarded wheelchair wheel salvaged from the Adriatic Sea, and the piano fallen in disuse which belonged to the Austrian conceptualist, filmmaker, improviser, photographer, environmentalist, and writer – Karl Katzinger aka John Tylo (October 1953 – April 2021).

Next to these elements of the past and their voices rediscovered, I am incorporating live processing of hydrophone and field recordings, found objects, and electromagnetic fields, from several locations, appropriating them through the discourse of critical tourism and a culture of memory – more specifically through listening to the inherent memories of environmental devastation and warfare – in the South Adriatic, on the Atlantic coast, and the Czech-Austrian borderlands former Iron Curtain belt, including region of former Mauthausen–Gusen working camps.

DARA String Festival

KulturRaum Zwingli—Kirche, Rudolfstraße 14, 10245 Berlin

October, 12 & 13, 19:00, doors open at 18:30

Artists / Künstler*innen

Clara Levy, violin

Manja Ristić, violin, electronics

Biliana Voutchkova, violin, voice

Atsuko Hatano, viola

Judith Hamann, cello

Vinicius Cajado, double bass

Youmna Saba oud, voice, electronics

Dara String Festival opens its door for the sixth time to all music lovers who are in the mood for something new! Seven international interdisciplinary string artists come together to present a wide range of genre-bending innovative music! The unconventional exchange of experience and culture between the musicians creates fruitful synergies and surprising listening experiences. Solo and various ensembles play music ranging from early contemporary to experimental and freely improvised, including new own compositions, world premieres by Sarah Hennies, Zeynep Toraman, and Voutchkova/Levy, and pieces by Kaija Saariaho and Erika Vega.

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Das Dara String Festival öffnet zum sechsten Mal in Berlin seine Türen für alle Musikliebhaber*innen, die Lust auf etwas Neues haben! Sieben internationale, interdisziplinäre Künstler*innen kommen zusammen, um ein breites Spektrum an genreübergreifender, innovativer Musik zu präsentieren! Der unkonventionelle Erfahrungs-und Kulturaustausch zwischen den Musiker*innen schafft fruchtbare Synergien und überraschende Hörerlebnisse. Solist*innen und verschiedene Ensembles spielen frühe zeitgenössische Musik bis hin zu experimenteller und frei improvisierter Musik, darunter neue Eigenkompositionen, Uraufführungen von Sarah Hennies, Zeynep Toraman und Voutchkova/Levy, sowie Kompositionen von Kaija Saariaho und Erika Vega.

Calypso's Dream

 

"Cruel folk you are, unmatched for jealousy, you gods who cannot bear to let a goddess sleep with a man." (Calypso to Hermes, who has just ordered her to release Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 5.120).

“Calypso’s Dream” is a soundscape collection sculpted out of subtle sonic morphologies from the underwater and coastal environments, lake flora and fauna, marshlands, and forested areas of the island of Mljet. Manja Ristić and Mark Vernon, internationally established musicians in the fields of sound art, experimental music, and radio art, are responsible for the research, field recording, and composition. The work will also be adapted for radio, premiering on the local station Radio Korčula, and subsequently disseminated worldwide through independent digital media and national frequencies.

For many years, the tourist offer of Mljet has involved the use of Greek mythology and the myth of Odysseus, whom the goddess Calypso enchanted and trapped for 7 long years on a distant exotic island. After barely escaping the sorceress Circe (whom the people of Korčula have claimed for a long time), he found himself stranded on the next island with a beautiful nymph.

We could say that the appropriation of Homer’s thoughts, from the construction of the grand Hellenic epic to the main tourist offering of a small island in an entirely different sea at the beginning of the 21st century, has truly taken hold. We know that various peoples inhabited the islands before the Greek fleets arrived, thus settling the entire region. Numerous archaeological sites and traces of distant history indicate a completely different landscape. And everything that history failed to record, even Homer, is deeply engraved in the environment that persists to this day. Furthermore, the tourism of the southern Adriatic is its own kind of Odyssey, marked by numerous shipwrecks, losses, and devastation, directly and uncompromisingly affecting the environment shaped over millennia.

In their quest to listen to ancient nature, guided by the concept of mnemosonics – listening to the memory of places – artists will explore the subtle sonic identity of the island, especially its lakes and forested areas where anthropogenic influence hasn’t taken hold. They will then “confront” these recordings, in the form of conceptual counterpoints, with recordings of contemporary life and sound pollution.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Why is the cliff on Mljet, which tourists pilgrimage to, called Odysseus’s cave? Wasn’t Calypso, the daughter of Atlas, the goddess who lived on her hidden island before Odysseus was stranded there? He found temporary refuge there, solely at her will. Then, after 7 years, the gods from Olympus ordered her to release him. According to some accounts, she died of grief after Odysseus’s departure. If he already had his cave, where was hers? If they shared the cave, why isn’t it called Odysseus and Calypso’s cave?

In search of a different gender approach to the ancient Greek narrative and its contemporary commercial appropriation, artists will attempt to construct a narrative from Calypso’s perspective, inspired by the work of the renowned writer Margaret Atwood. Penelopiad, who tried to unravel the archetypal mystery, narrated Odysseus from the perspective of his wife, who was left for 20 years to defend the kingdom and raise their children. “Calypso’s Dream” is an attempt to create a symbolic micro-episode of Penelopiad within the medium of sound art and installation, woven from the dense spectrum of the island’s biophony, instrumental and improvised narratives, critically reflecting on the commercial appropriation of culture, advocating for the importance of listening culture, and emphasizing the urgency of raising ecological awareness.

Coming out September 19th, 2024!!!

all sounds recorded and edited by Manja Ristić & Mark Vernon

hydrophones used for underwater recording by Jez riley French

mastering La Plant Studio

cover art & text Manja Ristić

the release is followed by a PDF booklet containing additional curatorial texts and images of Mljet's many aquatic micro-environments, flora, and fauna.

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, and the Dubrovnik-Neretva County Department for Education and Culture.

Sounding Spomenik

Sounding Spomenik, site-specific performances at architectural masterpieces of brutalist and modernist anti-fascist monuments scattered across ex-Yugoslavia, on this occasion we are visiting monumental pieces by the great Bogdan Bogdanović. July 2024, sites of Popina and Čačak memorial, with musicians Manja Ristić and Milana Zarić.

Co-production with Ensemble Studio 6, supported by the Culture Moves Europe Residency Program. 

ph courtesy by Arna Mackic

"While the stunning, still enigmatic visuality of the abstract brutalist monuments of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been well documented in recent years, we know almost nothing about their sound aspects. Most of these monuments (the original plural form spomenici, which in Serbo-Croatian and Slovene means monuments, comes from the root spomen-, which means memory) have hollow parts that serve as resonance spaces. The most typical materials from which these historical artifacts are made are concrete pouring and rebar or steel framework with metal cover plates. Materials that definitely affect sounds or have audible properties that change them. It is interesting that until now no one has studied, thoroughly documented and published these permanent landscape structures as acoustic spaces. Beyond the immediate sonic aspects of monuments, little is known about their surrounding acoustic environments. Most of these unique and individual monuments were built in remote rural locations, usually far from any urbanization, but some were placed in city centers or suburbs or near villages - all of which presuppose a very diverse sound environment.

However, the monuments functioned - and some still function - as monuments to the Second World War with a clear anti-fascist connotation, and from the mid-1950s to the end of the 1970s as the foundation and materialized symbols of Josip Broz Tito's utopian idea of ​​a strong and united Yugoslav state with the high-pitched slogan ' brotherhood and unity'; these abstract but undeniably iconic modernist constructions are treated purely as architectural works of art. All possible political and ideological layers aside, it is not our job to judge whether these monuments are useless politicized remnants of the former Yugoslavia's communist past or important historical artifacts still to be admired.

In addition to the fascinating brutalist architecture, we are interested in the sounds. KUD Mreža, ON Rizom Institute, and the sub-publishing label Inexhaustible Editions - Edicija FriForma started a long-term research, exhibition, recording, and publishing project in 2021, with which we research and reveal the sound attributes of the monuments of the former Yugoslavia (those that are now found in Slovenia, Croatia, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and North Macedonia) by engaging local instrumentalists - mostly young, extremely talented professional musicians who work locally or internationally in the field of free improvised or contemporary composed music, to find the most responsive or fascinating sounding parts of the monuments on the spot while playing a musical instrument. In addition to intentional sounds produced by musical instruments, by recording the environment, we also document unintentional sounds from the immediate surroundings. We plan to visit at least three monuments each year, study and reflect on them through field trips, photography, audio and video recordings, and eventually audio publications. So far, we have collected more than twenty locations with emblematic monuments that are important for our Sounding Monument project." - László Juhász, April 2021.

workshop "Zvuk etera"

Workshop “Zvuk etera” namjenjen je mladima u dobi od 13 do 17 godina!

5 susreta po 2 sata u periodu od 8. do 12. srpnja, razgovora i praktičnog rada kroz koji će se polaznici upoznati sa osnovama terenskog i hidrofonskog snimanja zvuka, montaže zvuka i različitih primena zvuka u suvremenoj multimedijalnoj kulturi.

Radionica podrazumijeva upoznavanje polaznika sa širim spektrom zvučnih disciplina kroz ideju postavke zvuka kao glavnog protagoniste u eksperimentalnom filmu, sveobuhvatno kroz diskurzivno upoznavanje sa filozofijom slušanja, mnemofonijom i Sound Walk kulturom.

Polaznici radionice mogu očekivati –

1. Predavanje u prirodi

- Razgovor o fizičkoj prirodi zvuka i naučnoj pozadini njegovog utjecaja na tjelo i okoliš

- Sesija slušanja

- Upoznavanje sa opremom za terensko snimanje

2. Predavanje u prirodi

- Filozofija slušanja, sonične ekologije

- Zvučni narativ, građenje odnosa sa okolišem kroz tehnike slušanja

- Sesija hidrofonskog snimanja

3. Sound Walk

- Site-specific intervencije, eksperiment / zvučne teksture, eksperiment / nečujni slušni opseg, eksperiment / skriveni zvuci svakodnevnice

4. Multimedijalna sala Centra za kulturu

- Osnove zvučne montaže, uvod u dinamički opseg Reaper softwera

- Preslušavanje materijala, intuitivno i konceptualno skladanje

5. Multimedijalna dvorana Centra za kulturu

- Osnove zvučne montaže, uvod u dinamički opseg Reaper softwera

- Preslušavanje materijala, intuitivno i konceptualno skladanje

Workshop “Zvuk etera” je dio je projekta razvoja publike “Korčula voli film”, usko vezan uz razvoj manifestacije “Pansinijevi dani” – projekta koji lokalnoj i međunarodnoj publici približava lik i djelo Mihovila Pansinija, otorinolaringologa, istraživača i teoretičara spaciocepcije, velikog hrvatskog filmskog eksperimentatora.

Osim radionice “Zvuk etera” u listopadu nas očekuje bogat radioničarski program!

Film i književnost, voditeljica: Sonja Leboš

Napravimo film zajedno!, voditelj: Kosta Ristić

Uvod u Pansinija za najmlađe, voditeljica: Petra Belc

Pazi, snimamo! – radionica fotografskog snimanja, voditeljica: Dea Botica

Dođite da eksperimentiramo!!!

Radionice su dio programa poticanja razvoja publike “Korčula voli film” podržane od strane Ministarstva kulture i medija Republike Hrvatske, kao i Zaklade Kultura Nova, a provode se u suradnji sa Knjižnicom “Ivan Vidali” i Centrom za kulturu Korčula. Nositelj projekta je Udruga za interkulturalna i interdisciplinarna istraživanja.

Sve radionice programa “Korčula voli film” su besplatne!

Dizajn: Jelena Vilović

 

Sonic Narratives

the 4th edition of NARAȚIUNI SONORE / SONIC NARRATIVES organized in Timișoara by the intrepid SIMULTAN FESTIVAL.

Through their sound works, the invited artists propose listening situations and dialogue around the diversity of natural and human sounds in various forms: augmented sound walk with Stephane Marin (FR), sound performance with field recordings and musical valences with Manja Ristić (SRB/HR), Felicity Mangan (AU), Patrick Tubin McGinley (US/EE) or Mark Vernon (UK), installation listening devices with Stephane Marin, Ana Teodora Popa (RO), Anamaria Pravicencu (RO) in collaboration with Daniela Rațiu (RO) and Manja Ristić (SRB/HR), a performative intervention with Edka Jarząb (PL), auditions and presentations of the radio and sound art platforms framework radio and Radiophrenia Glasgow, an initiation workshop in sound art and field recording with Ana Teodora Popa, and a party with Sandra & DJ Shuffle (RO).

Follow us along the Bega Canal in the mornings, through Central Park in the afternoons, to the chain of abandoned swimming pools on the warm weekend evenings, and on a cruise out of town on the boat Pelican.

Tape & Fields

 

Tape & Fields —— seemingly unrelated... While I was still under the impression of Portugal's sonic palimpsest, I composed this tape for the Ring Ring festival (which took place last weekend in Belgrade).

The Tape —— a 45-minute-long mix of a few recent releases, and snippets of new ones that will be released this year. This tape served as a framework for an improvisational set, including objects, Atlantic shells, an electromagnetic microphone, a hydrophone submerged in different chemical compounds, a wheelchair wheel, a violin, and an open upright piano.

The Fields —— a 19-minute-long hydrophone recording of the barge on the Tagus River outside of Lisbon, capturing the calming and mysterious sound of waves underwater near the river's estuary with the Atlantic.

Released May 27, 2024

All sounds recorded & composed by Manja R

Cover art by Manja R

The Tape —— master by Goran Simonoski / La Plant Studio

Tagus River Barge —— recorded with a JrF hydrophone

Neptunova nevera

 

Wonderful news! The documentary movie "The Tempest of Neptune" is premiering as part of the Serbian competition program at Beldocs Festival, this Thursday, May 23rd at 20:00 —— Youth Cultural Centre (Dom omladine) Belgrade.

It is a mesmerizing story about life on a remote island in the Adriatic, its industrial heritage, and the local community's struggle against mass tourism, gentrification, and various challenges of the 21st century.

Congratulations to Katarina Stanković, the mother of this wonderful project!

Director: Katarina Stanković

Script: Katarina Stanković

Producer: Katarina Stanković

Directors of photography: Grazyna Sowa, Nemanja Jovanov

Editor: Katarina Stanković

Music: James Thierrée, Manja Ristić, Tasos Stamou

Language: Croatian, English

forest floodlights

 

SOUND ART: ZEIT-TON

forest floodlights beim musikprotokoll 2023

Klangerkundungen im österreichisch-tschechischen Grenzgebiet

> broadcasting 17. Mai 2024, 23:03 < link > ORF Radio

Im Rahmen einer Shape+ Artist Residency tauchten Franziska Thurner, Abby Lee Tee und Manja Ristić in die Wälder des österreichisch-tschechischen Grenzgebiets ein, folgten den Spuren von Ameisen, Bibern, Flusskrebsen und Fischottern, erforschten die Hydrogeomorphologie verschiedener Waldbäche und lauschten Sedimenten oder Insektenchören. Eine von kleinen, aber wasserreichen Gewässern und Waldhängen durchzogene Landschaft, in der fast greifbar Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, Natur und moderne Gesellschaft, persönliche und kollektive Geschichte mitschwingen. Die heute unsichtbare Grenze entlang des früheren Eisernen Vorhangs wird nur noch durch verschiedene Arten der Landnutzung und dem Verhältnis zu Naturräumen sichtbar.

Zwei Stücke sind im Anschluss an einen mehrtägigen SHAPE+ Artist Residency-Aufenthalt für das ORF Festival musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst entstanden. Nachdem wir Ihnen "Water Whispers" bereits im Oktober vergangenen Jahres präsentiert haben, hören Sie heute den Mitschnitt der Performance "forest floodlights", die am Eröffnungsabend unserer Festivalausgabe 2023 im Grazer Dom im Berg zu erleben war.

Am 10. Mai hörten Sie ein Zeit-Ton Portrait über Manja Ristić. Manja Ristić ist Shape+ Artist 2023/24, nominiert vom ORF musikprotokoll. Shape+ ist die Plattform für spannende neue Projekte aus dem Bereich der Musik und audiovisuellen Kunst des Festivalnetzwerkes ICAS der International Cities of Advanced Sound. Gefördert wird Shape+ durch das Programm "Creative Europe" der Europäischen Union.

ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst
Shape+

Sendereihe Sound Art: Zeit-Ton
Gestaltung Susanna Niedermayr

Slani pejzaži

 

Trio album Manja Ristić / Verónica Cerrotta / Joana Guerra is out on TSSS tapes!

Coral red cassette + Digital Album "Slani pejzaži"

Side A: Diario de sueños 16:50
Side B: O vento retoma o seu lugar inicial 16:52

Recorded, composed & edited by Verónica Cerrotta, Joana Guerra & Manja Ristić
Mixed by Manja Ristić
Mastered by La Plant Studio
The title of side B is a line by Yannis Ritsos, in Diários do Exílio

Deepest gratitude to Francesco and his TSSS tapes magic!

Manja Ristić im Zeit-Ton Porträt

SOUND ART: ZEIT-TON / ORF.at

Manja Ristić im Zeit-Ton Porträt

Die Kunst des Hörens

> broadcasting 10. Mai 2024, 23:03 < link > ORF Radio

Eigentlich schien eine Karriere als Konzertviolinistin vorgezeichnet. Bereits während ihres Studiums zuerst an einer Musikschule und später an der Fakultät für Musik der Universität der Künste in Belgrad und dem Royal College of Music in London trat Manja Ristic regelmäßig auf, sowohl solo als auch in Ensembles und Orchestern, und gewann erste Preise. Doch es kam anders. Eine Arbeitsbewilligung in Europa zu bekommen, stellte sich für die junge Serbin als überaus hürdenreich heraus, dann erkrankte die Mutter. Ristić ging zurück nach Belgrad, um bei ihr sein zu können. Bald nach ihrem Tod wurde die angehende Violinistin selbst Mutter, - eines autistischen Kindes, das besonders viel Aufmerksamkeit brauchte.

Für die Kunst blieb der Alleinerzieherin nicht viel Zeit und das Leben im vom Krieg erschütterten ehemaligen Jugoslawien war schwierig. Doch die Musik blieb Zufluchtsort. In den wenigen ruhigen Momenten horchte Manja Ristić tief hinein in ihr Innerstes und entwickelte dabei ihre eigene Methodologie des Hörens, die sie schließlich zur Klangkunst führte. Als Ausgangsmaterial dienen Ristić heute vor allem Field Recordings, aus denen sie imaginäre Klanglandschaften schmiedet, die schnell Sogwirkung entfalten und die Hörer:innen auf wundersame Reisen schicken. Und die Künstlerin möchte auf die Missstände unserer Zeit aufmerksam machen, auf den zerstörerischen Massentourismus auf ihrer Heimatinsel Korčula etwa, auf die immer größer werdende Verschmutzung der Adria und auf jene Menschen, die - der Balkanroute folgend - ehemalige Minenfelder durchqueren, in der Hoffnung in Europa ein neues Leben beginnen zu können.

Manja Ristić ist SHAPE+ Artist 2023/24, nominiert vom ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst. Im Rahmen einer SHAPE+ Artist Residency erkundete Ristic gemeinsam mit Abby Lee Tee und Frankziska Thurner das österreichisch-tschechische Grenzgebiet. Das im Anschluss entstandene Stück "forest floodlights", das beim musikprotokoll 2023 seine Uraufführung feierte, ist im Zeit-Ton am 17. Mai zu hören.

SHAPE+ ist die Plattform für spannende neue Projekte aus dem Bereich der Musik und audiovisuellen Kunst des Festivalnetzwerkes ICAS der International Cities of Advanced Sound. Gefördert wird SHAPE+ durch das Programm "Creative Europe" der Europäischen Union.

Manja Ristic

ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst

Shape+

Sendereihe: Sound Art: Zeit-Ton

Gestaltung: Susanna Niedermayr

Imaginary Landscapes, Radio Belgrade

 

Album "Ma" published for LA based label LINE is having its Balkan radio premiere on Radio Belgrade 3 —— 97.6 FM in the famous show Imaginary Landscapes! Monday, May 6th, 2024. Tune in at 23.10 CET

> go to channel 3 <

Editor Ksenija Stevanović

Predstavljamo najnoviji album „Ma”, koji je saund umetnica Manja Ristić objavila 19. aprila za diskografsku kuću LINE iz Los Anđelesa.

Ovo je drugo izdanje naše umetnice za uglednog američkog izdavača, posle ostvarenja „Awakenings” iz 2023. godine. U dve numere od po dvadeset minuta, čiji su nazivi „Cvrčak i mrav” i „Pun mesec podrhtava na površini potoka”, Manja Ristić stvara suptilno, delikatno zvučno tkanje sastavljeno od semplova, terenskih snimaka, deonica na violini, zvuka prevlačenje gudala po činelama i rafiniranih elektronskih dronova.

Poput drugih radova koje ova umetnica potpisuje, pred nama je potraga za sučeljavanjima okruženja i nas samih, traganje za dubinskim, posve mističkim vezama između pojavnosti sveta i našeg unutrašnjeg života. Manja Ristić je posve singularno usmerena na osluškivanje svih onih talasa, pulsacija i tembralnih senčenja koje dolaze sa zvukom oko nas i u nama.

Autorka, u poetskom tekstu koji prati album kaže:

„Zvuci „Ma” su duboko u zemlji, na površini, u podmorju, na površini vode, u vazduhu, između gravitacije i lebdenja;...između Meseca i njegovog odraza; na dnu mirnog jezera i stratosfere izvan našeg sveta, na nekoj smrznutoj planeti sa skrivenim okeanom.

Ma je duša uhvaćena na traku”.

OUT.RA residency

On April 12 and 13, Convento da Madre de Deus da Verderena hosts a weekend entirely dedicated to the European platform SHAPE+, presenting artists from its 2023/24 roster, including the absolute debut of two unprecedented collaborations between SHAPE+ artists and national talents, specially commissioned for this event.

On Friday the 12th, we welcome the Swedish composer, artist, and instrument builder Amina Hocine, for a performance of her Instrument: a vertical organ built with PVC pipes, "powered" by compressed air, as well as the presentation of the collaborative residency between the Portuguese artists Joana de Sá and Joana Guerra and the Serbian Manja Ristić.

On Saturday the 13th, in the afternoon, with free admission, we begin with a session programmed by NOVOCINE, an online platform celebrating new voices in Portuguese cinema and audiovisuals, which for this occasion curated a selection of films in which sound constitutes a central element; followed by a presentation session of the action platform VIRA|dd/mm/yy, and a concert by the Lisbon-based Ukrainian duo OO0oϙ0O0O00O.

In the evening, time for a concert from the Italian Nicola Ratti, as well as the presentation of another collaborative residency, this time between the Portuguese Ondness and nëss and the Italian Francesca Heart.

Tickets for one day (10€) or for both days (15€) available via https://outra.bol.pt/