Label: arbitrary

デンマークはコンペンハーゲンより毎度興味深い音源を届けてくれるMads Emil Nielsen主宰のレーベルarbitrary。ベルリンにてサウンドアーティスト/コンポーザーとして20年以上に渡り活動、MikrotonやErrant Bodiesといった通好みのレーベルにも諸作を残しているBoris Baltschunが7年振りの新作を発表。南アフリカ現代美術プロジェクトのコレクションとして制作されたラジオ劇作品で、現地のフィールドレコーディングをベースに、それをイメージしてモジュラーシンセの合成で作り上げた架空のサウンドスケープ、様々な言語の語りをミックスした異様な感触のラジオドラマ。言語と音響が調和したレイヤーが非常にカッコイイ。



Edition of 300, inside-out sleeve, printed innersleeve
incl. download code

Desert Dictionary navigates sonic territories oscillating between language and landscape, between notation and noise. Voices responding and contributing to a complementary narrative, connecting personal memories, political considerations and psychological effects of a landscape seemingly empty and quiet. Adjacent, beneath and intertwined a modular synthesizer score based on field notes – a synthesized soundscape appearing as imaginary field recordings, at the same time resembling and unalike the place in question.

The twelve contributions presented on the LP were recorded in South Africa over a period of three months in 2020 and 2021. These recordings occurred in various locations in Kimberley, Bloemfontein, Richmond / Northern Cape, Cape Town, Grassy Park, Krugersdorp and Johannesburg.

The Desert Dictionary appears in four iterations – a situation as part of Modern Art Projects South Africa’s collection, a radio play (commissioned by Deutschlandfunk Kultur), a book edition (published by MAPSA), and the present LP.

The LP version is based on the radio play and features the voices of Richard John Forbes, Maja Marx, Phala Ookeditse Phala, Victoria Wigzell, Tubatsi Mpochmoloi, Liza Grobler, Nkosinathi Gumede, Karlien van Rooyen, Mongezi Ncombo, Ivan Messelaar, Gerhard Marx and Lindiwe Matshikiza.

The synthesized field recordings – translations of fieldnotes taken in the desert – were recorded in Johannesburg and Berlin.