“In retreat with the Hollywood PRESIDENT” is a 10 minute collage of practice snippets recorded in March 2021 during the Corona pandemic at the Villa Nix in Stuttgart, Germany. Seven one-minute tracks and one three-minute track refer either to one or more stories from Giovanni Boccaccio’s “The Decameron”.

All tracks are recorded with a mobile phone and are neither mixed nor mastered.

01 / press roll // the young narrators tell stories without referring to a specific topic /// 02 / tom figures // adventurous stories from the streets of Naples /// 03 / jazz comping // monk Alberto deceives a woman to be the angel Gabriel and sleeps with her /// 04 / trap beat // Cisti Fornaio convinces Geri-Spina to repent his indelicate question asked using only one well chosen sentence /// 05 / sixteenth note ride // Calandrino thinks to have found the magical stone of Elitropia, but comes home with only gravel in his hands /// 06 / bossa nova // Federigo degli Alberighi suffers from an unrequited love, but finally all his efforts are being rewarded /// 07 / chopped beat // the brothers of Lisabetta da Messina kill her lover. After she unearths his skull the brothers take it from her and she dies in pain /// 08/09/10 / signs of life / stories are told in which against all odds and hopes a happy end takes place

Nationality and location:
born in Rome, Italy
works and lives in Stuttgart, Germany.

The audio play is a reflection on my existence in space, and its new meaning in the light of global changes brought by the pandemic. Thoughts about the interesting change in my perception of time and disturbances of my daily routine are collected in a form of personal, diary-like notes. Accompanied with field recordings and audio effects, in order for the “outside” getting intertwined with the “inside”.

Social media:
agatalech.bandcamp.com instagram.com/agatalech.pdf/

Isolation for me has not been so much defined by lack of contact with others. As significant a change as it has been, the main defining factor has been the time with one’s own thoughts: the internal, often unintentional soundtrack that runs around our minds at will, and at this time, plays louder and more persistently than “normal”.

This work is a self-reflection and commentary: I recorded excerpts of various works that have been central to my lockdown experience of late, and created a piece that represents my own personal experience. The randomness gives one a sense of the uncontrolled, of the mind wandering back and forth, cutting in and out and over one another and returning to the same themes, whilst the silence reflects the disconnection I feel, but also the opportunity for reflection that these times offer us.

Nationality and location:
Australian, location: Stuttgart

Website:
alex-waite.com

Various noises in between radio station frequencies were collected, and each of them was given a conceptual space to travel within. The noises are apart from each other but cross paths intermittently, forming a zone together.

Social media:
instagram.com/gyoyakay

The work is an audio piece reimagining reality where the majority of the population isn’t free and is forced to live and fight from underground.

Inner Spaces: Live from Quarantine is an experimental/poetic broadcast of hope to the people on planet Earth, experiencing the distress, and suffering caused by COVID-19 spreading and saturating the world. Each episode or “transmission” discusses deep, thought-provoking topics, while conjuring poetry that speaks to the layman and their everyday battle to embrace the “new normal” rather than relive the lies of old.



In these strange times of massive uprising and unrest Inner Spaces: Live from Quarantine dives into the minds and hearts of the people, not just creating a dialogue, but a community out of the voices of the disenfranchised and confused, by way of innovative sound art.

Topics such as the existence of the Black body, to historical references that have shaped an innovated the lives of many will be explored in depth, and with an artistic eye; all this will be done to encourage a spark of resistance in the hearts of all who listen against the powers that are holding them down, back and away from living out their dreams.

My work “Journey into the Unknown” deals with the desire for the strange and unknown, but also tries to sonically capture the uncertainty that comes with the time of a global pandemic. All the past weeks and months with their monotony have triggered a striving for something different in me, so that I have often fled into my own sound worlds over the winter. “Journey into the Unknown” is the live recorded result of one of these sessions and outlines the escape from my own everyday life. I can imagine that the stagnation of public life has triggered similar feelings in many other people. In addition to the monotony, however, the question of change has always concerned me as well. When will the status change? At what point will I be able to return to the life I had before? The fact that no answer can be found to many of these questions describes for me the circumstance of uncertainty. But why do we humans strive so hard to be able to determine or even predict the course of events? Is uncertainty really something problematic or is it more about an ongoing loss of control that makes us feel afraid? For me, my sonic exploration of the subject enables this contact with the strange and unknown and also gives the concept of uncertainty a more positive meaning again. During my sessions I have not perceived the unknown as something threatening, no longer as something to be afraid of, but much more as a kind of journey whose path cannot be determined. As dark as the journey sometimes seems, there always will be some sparkling light along the way that is worth discovering.

Social media:
instagram.com/plnrav soundcloud.com/plnrav

Live Recording at Korridor Bar, Stuttgart, approximately 3 hours before lockdown.

It’s a tape cassette installation where you can hear the 4 seasons represented by 4 track. It became an immersive and narrative performance experience which deals with the moments I spent in my native countryside during the first lockdown.

Social media:
simonherody.bandcamp.com instagram.com/smnherody

The Decamerone – i read it some day and i was surprised of the at times drastic language and the airiness of the storytellers in it.

It is so nice to be inspired to tell, not to judge, to criticize, to suggest or to clarify, although all this can appear in narrating.

What do I have to tell?

Singing, talking and improvising with vocalisations I touch thoughts and emotions during the Corona period. Therefore I took some of my favourite songs and changed parts of the lyrics. In the original version the songs often tell of love and desire. So they mention yet what is missing sometimes. Other parts of my submission reflect phrases or words which deluge us constantly these days like masks, vaccination etc. For the end of the audio I was looking for an utopia, not a real aim more a movement in an open space. “Youkali” from Kurt Weill/Roger Fernay offers this perspective.



Youkali

It’s almost to the end of the world

That my wandering boat,

On the waves aimlessly afloat,

Took me one day.

The island is only small,

But the fairy inhabiting it

Welcomes us all

And gently invites us to stay.

Youkali is the land of dreams we treasure,

Youkali is happiness, Youkali is pleasure,

Youkali is the place where we stop worrying,

It’s the clouds parting

In the dark of our night,

The star that shines bright,

That’s Youkali



Nationality and location:
German, Stuttgart

Website:
produktionszentrum.de/kuenstler-detail/mitglied/38

Social media:
facebook.com/susa.ramsthaler

During the past year I had lots of spare time, which I used to practice deep listening. Being in my garden by the protected area behind my house helped me to overcome very quickly occasional loneliness. I’ve realised that it’s impossible for me to feel lonely, when I listen to the sounds that surround me in nature. I’m there with the rustling wind in the cherry trees, the dry hammering of the woodpeckers in the silver poplars, the cheerful sparrows in the hornbeam hedge and the joyful cheering of the children in the playground. In a way I tend to forget myself while listening to them, which is a short sensation of freedom from the usual tyranny of the mind. I’ve realised that connecting to nature while listening to it’s sounds, can be very fulfilling. To my surprise I’ve learned to overcome in this way feelings of loneliness.

For my audiowork CHEERS I’ve used field recordings that I made at home from my living room window. Like most people, I was isolated at home for the past months. I live at the edge of a protected landscape area and a playground in the north of Karlsruhe. The past few weeks I’ve been listening to the most wonderful sounds, because spring is coming. For my audio work I’ve used recordings of woodpeckers, sparrows, children's voices, rain and wind, but also of my steel drum and harmonium. It isn’t a conventional track, it’s rather a soundscape made out of sounds that accompany me here at home in the lockdown. I think that these sounds are telling stories and producing pictures, memories and feelings, which I’m not able to put into words precisely.

Nationality and location:
German, living in the outskirts of Karlsruhe

Website:
tinajander.com

Social media:
instagram.com/tina_jander_sound