UNTRAINING THE EAR WITH ILYICH

The seed of all conflicts is in separation of me and mine
The seed of all suffering is in expectations and resistances
Put these two seeds together and they will root a tree
So high as the sky...

...In the shadow of this place, countless lives pass...
...In the shadow of this place, countless lives pass...

Branching off, in fear and greed, and great attachment
In desire, haterade, anger and jealousy 
The tree of separation, bears fruits of liberation

Don't go to the root. Go beyond the seed.
Don't go to the root. Go beyond the seed.

Seeds...Roots...Fruits…

Seeds...Roots...Fruits

Seeds...Roots...Fruits...

PIECE #1 Seeds Roots Fruits

Am Freitag, dem 17. Januar, feiert die Welt den Art's Birthday. Die globale Party startet mit einem Netzwerk-Konzert aus Berlin, Wien, Kairo und Istanbul. Im zweiten Teil des Abends tritt die japanische Klangkünstlerin Tomoko Sauvage auf.

Die Kunst hat Geburtstag und das verdankt sie dem Fluxuskünstler Robert Filliou. Er gratulierte im Jahr 1963 zum 1.000.000. „Art’s Birthday“. Seither feiern am 17. Januar Menschen und Institution weltweit mit Performances, Konzerten und Ausstellungen. An der globalen Party beteiligen sich SAVVY Contemporary, Deutschlandfunk Kultur und der ORF mit einem Netzwerk-Konzert aus Berlin, Wien, Kairo und Istanbul. Vier Performerinnen beschäftigen sich an diesen Orten mit dem Sound von Protestbewegungen. Das Wort „Heya“ bedeutet im Arabischen „sie“, im Englischen ist es ein freundlicher Gruß. Im zweiten Teil des Abends tritt die japanische Klangkünstlerin Tomoko Sauvage auf. Ihr Instrument ist ein akustischer Synthesizer aus Klangschalen. Mithilfe von Keramik, Wasser und Unterwassermikrofonen erschafft sie unerhörte Klangwelten.

Jilliene Sellner ist eine kanadische Klangkünstlerin und Wissenschaftlerin. Derzeit lebt sie in Großbritannien. Sie arbeitet mit Field Recordings, Sound und Podcasts, komponiert Soundtracks für künstlerische Videoarbeiten und gibt Podcast-Unterricht in gemeinnützigen Organisationen. Sie studierte an der Simon Fraser University in Kanada und an der University for the Creative Arts in England. „Heya“ ist Teil ihrer Doktorarbeit an der University of Sussex.

Nour Sokhon arbeitet an Klangperformances, Installationen und Bewegtbildern. Sie studierte Kunst an der American University in Dubai und der Glasgow School of Art. 2019 erhielt sie den Emerging Artist Prize des Sursock Museum. Sie ist Mitglied der Kollektive Tse Tse Fly Middle East und Glitch Artists und Teil des Duos NSTANT mit Stephanie Merchak.

Yara Mekawai lebt als Elektronikmusikerin und Klangkünstlerin in Kario. Ihre Arbeiten sind inspiriert von Architekturtheorie, Urbanismus, Geschichte und Literatur. Dabei verwendet sie Sound also ein Werkzeug des Sehens. Derzeit arbeitet sie an dem Online-Radioprojekt Radio Submarine, in dem sie wöchentlich die Musikkultur eines weiteren afrikanischen Landes vorstellt.

Zeynep Ayşe Hatipoğlu ist Cellistin und Doktorandin am Centre for Advanced Studies in Music der Istanbul Technical University. Sie komponiert nicht-traditionelle Musik. Als Mitglied verschiedener Experimentalensembles hat sie Auftritte in ganz Europa.

Tomoko Sauvage studierte zunächst Jazzklavier in New York, ehe sie 2003 nach Paris zog. Die Kompositionen von Alice Coltrane und Terry Riley weckten ihr Interesse an indischer Musik. Dabei entdeckte sie das Jalatharangam, ein traditionelles Instrument aus wassergefüllten Porzellanschalen. Fasziniert von der Einfachheit und Schönheit seiner Klänge, begann sie, das Instrument weiterzuentwickeln.

Whether you are sitting, standing, walking, lying, falling, flying, drifting, driving, floating, spinning through the vast cosmos as a little planet, join in gently by simply bringing your attention back into the interior of your mind and body

 …spend a few moments allowing your head, neck, and shoulders to relax… relax your face, your jaw, your hands and legs, relax your belly… let go of any tensions… for a while… focus your attention on the movement of your breath in the body, can you sense it?... are you sure your body is really here?...

…exercise your listening… use this opportunity to go within…broaden your awareness to include all sounds that surround you… there is no need to seek them out… as best as you can… stay open… be receptive to sounds as they arrive… you hear the sound of this audio… stereo… this voice… you might also notice the sound of the space around you, the city, nature, a sound system, humans, animals, spirits, inner voices, outer voices… voices… notice the enormous depth and the variety of sound…

… become aware of whatever is actually here…

… listen to how sounds arrive from all directions: from the front, or back, from above and below, from the left and right… from the inside and from the outside… some of the sounds are near and some are far… listen whether you can sense the moments of their arrival, their amplitude, their pitch and timbre: how long they stay and how they slowly fade away… arrive, decay, sustain, release…

… it takes everything to make a sound… every sound is as complex as the world it appears in… it is the sum total of the ecosystem, of politics, and social relationships, of remembering… forgetting… presence… silence… notice how independent and untraceable every sound is… it is not yours, or theirs, it is beyond control and always in between…

…notice whether you can hear your own voice among the sounds… can you hear your tendency to describe, define, to judge, attach, to grab a sound?... can you hear your voice as just another sound?... listen – if you are feeling lost – refocus your attention on the sounds as the raw sensations and on you experiencing it… who is listening now?...

Sound is not a wave… it is a sphere… listen to how louder, more obvious sounds tend to force out the quieter ones… notice how easily you can be carried away under the influence of their sphere… sounds are events, not facts…

Do you hear the gaps between the sounds? Can you gain a sense of the silence? Somewhere on the edge of hearing?

Sound and Thoughts...and Silence...

Gently shift the focus of your attention to your thoughts...

Can you sense how thoughts are rising in your mind? How long they linger and when they pass? Their amplitude, duration, pitch? What are they pitching?

As with sounds, there is no need to make thoughts come or go… they do it anyway, they arrive from all directions, all by themselves… arrive, decay, sustain, release… as with sounds, you cannot control the type or intensity of thoughts flowing across your mind… all you can do is listen and be attentive to them…

… just as with sounds, it takes everything to make a thought… mind, body, planet, spirit, technology, nature, cosmos, chaos, politics, remembering, forgetting, presence, silence… the sum of it all… every thought is as complex as the world it appears in… ever escaping, impossible to represent, thoughts are events, not facts… listen… thoughts and sounds are all and the same...

Just as with sounds, thoughts flow, vibrate, and resonate, yet they are spheres, not waves… how easily are you abducted and carried away under the influence of their sphere? Carrier waves… Carrier thoughts… Can you trace any thought back to its origin?...

Thoughts are sounds… some of them are loud, scary, sudden, and some are barely audible, queer, marginal, quiet, fresh… quite fresh… Sometimes they stick around and fill the entire space and sometimes they dissolve quickly and disappear immediately and only space remains…

When powerfully charged thoughts, emotions, resistances arise… pay kind attention to them… allow them to be just as they are, without judgement, expectation or blame… sounds and thoughts are events… at least inside of you, it is up to you which events you will attend and nurture… just as with sounds, all of this will eventually change or disappear completely… whatever is closest to source lasts the longest...

Can you hear the gaps between the sounds? Can you hear the gaps between thoughts? Can you gain a sense of the silence? The background space from which it all appears ?... Listening is all it takes and silence is ever speaking… silence — the only eternal flow of language — interrupted by sounds and thoughts… like electricity flowing in a wire… only with resistance to its passage it illuminates a lamp, revolves a fan, lets a sound emerge, another thought perhaps, a life… for a very brief moment only… for now… yet, it always remains silence, the heart of all… whatever lasts longest is the core of it all… silence… beginningless… listen… sounds, thoughts...silence… 

Whether you are sitting, standing, walking, lying, falling, flying, drifting, driving, floating, spinning through the vast cosmos as a little planet, join in gently by simply bringing your attention back into the interior of your mind and body… Who is listening?...