Version: ensemble mosaik /// Bethanien
Klangwerkstatt Berlin /// 11/08/2020

The work juxtaposes three sound environments: that of Marianneplatz in Berlin Kreuzberg, that of the inflatable boat and that of the burning refugee camp Moria.

Five play stations are distributed around the room. At each station there is a musician with an instrument. Opposite the musician is a listening station with headphones. Each musician has a rope attached to their body, the other end of which is on a stand in the room opposite the listening station.

When a person from the audience approaches a listening station, puts on the headphones and stretches the rope, the following happens:

• A spectral cross-fade between two audio tracks in the headphones:
Track 1: Documentary recordings and interviews of the people who fled across the sea;
Track 2: Documentary recordings and interviews of the people reporting on the fire of the Moria refugee camp from 2020.

A frequency range of track 1 is faded out, at the same time the same frequency range of track 2 is faded in.

• The musician plays pitches in the frequency range that has just faded in and out.
The instruments are amplified and played back from the two channels of the headphones.

In the same way, a spectral cross-fading takes place in the room between two outdoor field recordings at two opposite positions (north and south) at Mariannenplatz in Berlin Kreuzberg.

The more people from the audience participate in the performance, the further these cross-fading processes progress. If no one from the audience takes part in the performance, the Mariannenplatz playback remains static in the space and the musicians do not play: everyone listens to Kreuzberg.

Commissioned by Klangwerkstatt Berlin.