In the game, invented by the surrealist movement of the early 20th century, artists were invited to add to a sequence by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous artist contributed. In this version, we replace the pen and paper with sound-making objects, instruments, microphones, and recording devices.
Each participant is invited to create and record in-situ a 3-5 minute composition starting as a continuation from a 30-second recording made and left behind by the previous participant. This “continuation” of the 30 seconds can be interpreted freely, but it remains at any moment the only part audible from the whole project. No participant knows the entire piece until the end. The result is a ca. 40-minute composition to be revealed at a concluding listening session.
For the recording sessions, we lay out a table with various sound-making devices, musical instruments and effects. The invited artists engage with the objects and microphones on the table to create their track.
Each participant has up to 5 hours to create and record a piece on a given day (exact dates below) during the „Berlin-Karussell“ at A.D.K. As the project is part of an ongoing exhibition, the recording is done during opening hours, in the presence of visiting audience. In this way, it becomes performative.
Featuring a new collaborative composition by Dani Gal and Ari Benjamin Meyers, Nico von Wersch, Tony Buck and Magda Mayas, Manos Tsangaris, Labour, Marina Rosenfeld, Christian Naujoks
Dani Gal and Bernhard Schreiner’s improvisation act is based on a dialog between processed string instruments where the players respond both mechanically and intuitively to each other’s playing. Gal uses a device that translates sound sources into vibrations executed by small electric-motors to activate his guitar which by turn generates electronic noises through another device. During the concert Schreiner plays an Austrian Zither which he processes using bows, mallets, brushes, effect units and loops. His engagement becomes the live sound source that activates Gal’s devices. The conversation between the source and its instrumental translation creates unexpected call and response between the two players and the instant composition shifts between careful construction and rapid deconstruction.
DANI GAL, CHRISTIAN NAUJOKS. Concert – Presented by Yellow Solo at R50
Dani Gal uses a constantly evolving system that brings different sound sources—such as live radio, recorded sounds, and acoustic instruments outfitted with specially designed motors—into dialogue with each other. For example, when switching between stations on the radio receiver, the shift in sound level affects the movement of a record player that by result manipulates the sound on the record but also triggers oscillators. In relation to one another the sources, which the player has only partial control over, create an indeterminate musical composition.
Christian Naujoks plays an alternately tuned electric guitar with an electric bow and bottleneck slide; he layers the resulting long notes to create ambiguous harmonies and also incorporates pink/white noise and other sounds often used in tinnitus relief therapies. Through the interplay of consonance and dissonance, Naujoks blurs the boundaries between internal and external acoustic stimuli, sonic illusions, natural and synthetically generated tones. Culturally charged or standardized typical sounds often appear distorted, stretched, emptied, or shifted in his pieces.
In their project for the Frankfurter Kunstverein/Hessischer Rundfunk, Dani Gal and Achim Lengerer performed with DJ consoles in front of the audience to create a new “text” from documentary, political material of public speeches, political statements and other original soundtracks of the 20th century. The sonic performance was staged as a live broadcast with audience at the Hörspielstudio 7 and aired on hr2- on the 27th of November 2011.
As a sound and spacial installation, the project was part of the exhibition Demonstrations. Making Normative Orders at the Frankfurter Kunstverein (curated by Britta Peters) beginning of 2012,
Editing 4:1: Achim Lengerer and Dani Gal
Sound engineers: André Bouchareb, Roland Grosch, Ursula Potyra
Produced by: Ursula Ruppel Hörspielstudio Hessischer Rundfunk and Frankfurter Kunstverein, 2011/2012
Vertiginous – An audio play With the backdrop of The Second World War and the Algerian War for Independence Vertiginous, a two part audio play tells the story of Camilla Mayer and Abdallah Bebtaga, two circus acrobats whose life is entangled through their steep rise to glory and tragic fall.
Part 1 Camilla
Part 2 Abdallah
Voice: David Wurawa, Alexei Korolyov, Alix Martin, Ewa Placzyńska
Produced by Ruth Anderwald + Leonhard Grond & Sergio Edelsztein
In Semi Automatic, Gal uses sound generating devices such as a radio receiver, recorded sounds or electro magnetic recorders to mechanically and electronically activate other sound sources, such as musical instruments. By using sound activated small electric-motors to vibrate string instruments which by turn generate electronic noises through another device Gal creates a dialogue between two or more sound sources. For example, by switching stations on a radio receiver, shifts in the sound level affect the movement of the motor that by result plays a string instrument.
In relation to one another the sources, which the player has only partial control over, create an indeterminate musical composition. One of the main aspects in this project is the use of speech. Through the radio receiver or pre recorded voices, speech acts as an activating sound source. When stimulating a motor that excites a string instrument it creates a sort of Speech Surrogacy; the practice of imitating verbal speech without the use of the larynx. When both the voice and the instrument braid into each other, spoken language become music.
The radio is an acousmatic instrument. Listeners do not see the origin of the sound, their experience is shaped both by their own interpretation, and the manipulation of the producer in a political system. Our programs work on the space between documentary and Musique concrète. Each show focuses on political events that are connected to acoustic events. This creates an acousmatic documentary where the programs become sound-objects. The programs response to the ‘image saturated society’ discourse, by asking what is the function of sound as a document in times of live video feeds that can be broadcasted by anyone.
1) The Heavy Listener, 34:36min
Life between improvised music and Palestinian human rights. With Eyal Hareuveni. Live improvisation by Michael Thieke and Dani Gal
2) The Biennale is Fascist, 45:45min
The Student Movement of Venice tried to sabotage the 1968 Biennale while David Lamelas was changing the system from within.
With David Lamelas and Ciara di Steffano
3) Welcome to the Jungle, 43:27 min
Freedom Rock was used as a weapon in the U.S. invasion of Panama at the end of 1989 in what was a test case for American wars to come. With Peter Eisner (Washington Post)
4) Terra Nullius, 47:53min
Physical soundscapes from remote areas in Australia by Robert Curgenven echo the country’s colonial practices.
5) By November It Was Already Different, 45:02min
A conversation about Opposition and the Church in the last days of the German Democratic Republic. With Marianne Birthler and Rocco Pagel
6) December 7, 1989, East Berlin, 48:40min
The first meeting of the East German Round Table where members of East German citizen movements met with government representatives to discuss the future of the German Democratic Republic. With Elske Rosenfeld
7) Between Beirut and Gaza, 46:15min
Ghazi Barakat talks about growing up under the shadow of the Palestinian struggle and how this experience translates into his musical work.
8) A Wooden Cross, 47:52min
A trip to a village near Erfurt, where a small Ahmadiyya community wants to build a mosque. With Suleman Malik and Ricklef Münnich
9) Preservation is Visibility, 47:05min
The women behind the civil rights movement in the U.S. as documented in Irma McClaurin’s African American feminist archive, and Ryan Mendoza hijacking Rosa Parks’ house to Berlin.
10) Five Broken Microphones, 46:45min
Miriam Schikler recorded sound fragments from the reality of state violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as means of activism and music making.
11) Something is Going to Happen, 43:08min
The violent, xenophobic riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen shortly after the unification of Germany. With Wolfgang Richter and Cornelia Schmalz Jacobsen
12) Under the Pavement Lies the Strand, 44:33min
A conversation about music and feminism. With Angi Domdey and Antje Greye
13) The Call of the Muazzin, 42:29min
The Israeli Government passed a bill that denounces the muazzin call to Prayer in mosques as noise pollution; meanwhile Pegida activists in Germany play it on their loudspeakers. With Abed Abu Shehadeh
14) Sounds of Our Fatherland, 45:33min
Shortly after the invention of the microphone Nazi Germany used field recordings to strengthen nationalistic feelings. With Yaron Jean
15) Decolonized Weather, 43:01min
Eitan Bronstein Aparicio uses diverse activities to decolonize Palestine. One of them is mapping destruction. He sent a map to Gaza and documented the trip.
16) Mulkelhood, 44:49min
Czech political prisoners in the communist era formed a special kind of brotherhood that lasted years after their release. With Jana Kopelentova Rehak
17) The American Sector, 39:26min
The role of RIAS (Radio in the American Sector) in post war Berlin, on both sides of the wall. With Dr. Joan Clinefelter
18) Frequency Anomaly, 47:04min
An Audio tape led to new discoveries in the Robert Kennedy assassination. With Shane O’ Sullivan and Philip Van Praag.
19) 3700 Hours of Recorded Tape, 44:08min
The Nixon tapes reenacted live in the studio by Jeff Burrell
