zeltini by revenant

revenant : zeltini
01.05.07

Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh, Felicity Mangan

‘revenant’ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. All sounds originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself.

There were some “dark” elements surrounding this session. It was mid-November in the Baltics which meant that it was cold, gray and the sun goes down early. By the time we entered the bunker and set up to record there was no natural light left to see. Trying to find a shared experience through improvisation among a group that is not familiar is hard enough, trying to do this in the dark in an unfamiliar place is even harder. Knowing we would be without visual and sometimes auditory communication because of the multiple spaces available I suggested to do a recording experiment, to each use our own equipment yet synchronize the timing at the start. If we were to get “lost” or immersed in our own experiences, it would be interesting to reassemble them later as a shared “fictional” space. This is indeed what we ended up with. Using only my ears and a headlamp to guide my way, I foraged through that unknown space collecting objects and playing them on the varied surfaces I discovered. I remember the old rags, the dust, broken pieces of concrete, pipes coming out of the ground and how I searched for ways to animate the space and instigate interactions with the others. Whether it was the quest for new objects or the need to stay warm I constantly moved around and even ended up outside toward the end. (John Grzinich)

Once we are inside the bunker, and after some discussion, confusion and negotiation, we each press record and away we go.
From here for the next hour I can barely see, feeling my way through the space by hand and by ear.
I am listening, dragging, scrapping, sounding, and for a large amount of the time trying not to fall over.
For me, this recording was a response to site in a direct sensual and physical way.
Each room had a different feel and a different sound.
What I played depended largely upon what I tripped over in the dark.
I could hear the others, sometimes close, sometimes at the other end of the bunker.
I heard my own foot steps ; the object in my hand dragging against the floor or the wall.
I heard the rain ; I felt the cold cement under hand and the dirt and debris under foot.

While the experience of this day is still quite vivid in my mind, memory fades and warps.
In the same way this recording is an unreliable document of five experiences of one place and time.
The events and our individual experiences of the day,
and this recording, are inseparably linked but at the same time they feel totally disconnected.
I am aware of the history and that without history the site would not exist in the way it does now.
But for someone who grew up on the other side of the world I make no claim of truly understanding.
And of course the presence that this history has created undoubtedly played its way into how we each,
in our differing ways felt and reacted to the situation and sounds we found ourselves in ;
just as much as the bits of wood, reinforced steel and crumbling concrete did.
But I was not thinking of these things. I have no idea how or even if this recording is a response to any of this.

(Eamon Sprod)

a thematic ltd series focusing primarily on phonographies reflecting the spirit of a specific place crowded with memories, its aura & resonances and our intimate interaction with it…

unfathomless.net
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