Paweł by Michal Libera

*** DIFFUSION SYSTEM WITH DEEP LOW END HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ***

Essentially, "Paweł" is an audio travelogue—a half-phantasmagoric, half-mockumentary depiction of rivers, canals, and sewage, whether flowing toward water reservoirs or upstream to their often inaccessible sources. The piece consists of six scenes, or rather six encountered landscapes. Together, they form a not-very-logical and not-very-conclusive story about water dams and locks, abundance and floods, dry lakes and stony riverbeds, as well as everything they hide and reveal. It is also about the rhythm in which they perform this work. In fact, it is mostly about that rhythm.

"Paweł" is based on field recordings made with homemade geophones, hydrophones, and contact microphones. This choice means that the landscapes in "Paweł" are not soundscapes, nor do they resemble spaces as we usually hear them. Little is presented from the perspective of human ears, yet these recordings are absurdly real—the editing is minimal, there are barely any effects, and practically no imposed drama. What truly defines "Paweł" are the juxtapositions of different takes of a given landscape at a given time—simultaneous yet arbitrary, seemingly oversized, perhaps disproportionate.

The field recordings in "Paweł" are accompanied by a voice reading the text—something between travel notes, an outline of a lecture on social history, and a curatorial narration explaining the nature of the sounds heard. Facts, anecdotes, myths, and everyday observations certainly reveal something, but they likely conceal even more, especially given the abundance of quotes—or rather, crypto-quotes. The only exception is a lengthy excerpt from Robert Ashley's libretto "The Mystery of the River", a rarely performed section of the opera "Atalanta (Acts of God)". It comes as "MotR (Third River)".

One more thing. None of this would have been possible without Marcin Barski. Gratitude does not really express anything in this case but it is the least I can do.

Cover art work: Athanasius Kircher

Sociologist working in music field as curator, producer, dramatist and author of various experimental sound forms from audiobooks of unwritten texts to operatic arias of mute singers.

Blogger