Özgür Yılmaz – Kontrabass & Electronics & Filed Recordings
Udo Koloska – Clarinet & Electronics & Filed Recordings 

Trailer

Now I will do nothing but listen,
To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.

I hear bravuras of birds, bustle of growing wheat, gossip of flames,
clack of sticks cooking my meals,
I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice,
I hear all sounds running together, combined, fused or following,
Sounds of the city and sounds out of the city

Song of Myself, WALT WHITMAN

Environmental Concert Series: 12 Rote Stühle

“Environmental Concerts” is a project that combines listening practice and aural research with a musical performance produced by Udo Koloska and Özgür Yılmaz. 

The idea of aesthetically exploring, documenting and relating to our sonic environment has been addressed by many artists in different ways. From the soundscape projects of Murray Schafer’s World Soundscape Project to compositions with field recordings like Hildegard Westercamp‘s to sound walks and listening sessions in the urban environment of Pauline Oliviero. 

The focus is on unbiased listening, which promotes a physical and sensual relationship to the acoustic environment in the same way as to music. In the project, there are 3 concerts/musical actions in different public urban spaces, which combine listening to the immediate environment and sound actions by two musicians who relate to this current soundscape in an improvisational way with their instruments. The actions invite you to listen on the spot: The sound of the place, the rustling of leaves, water, passers-by, passing bicycles, and a dialogue between the clarinet player and bird calls of the surroundings. The droning under a bridge when a tram passes over it corresponds with a passage of the double bass. Sound events are taken up, continued, and musically abstracted. Thus the improvised sound structure creates a frame or counterpoint to the sounds of other actors in the place – human and non-human.

The musicians use miniature microphones, among other things, to include quiet or otherwise inaudible sound: Contact microphones in the meadow or soil. The vibrations of lampposts, stair railings or tree branches can thus be made audible and included in the performance. The improvisations also work with the actual spatiality of the location, exploring distances: reverberations, echoes or sound changes through buildings, walls, and passages.

The actions are advertised as concerts/sound actions beforehand. 12 red chairs symbolically designate the listening space and also invite random passers-by to linger.