Sounds of the Living Part III & The Matter is Melting

Sonic Blue is based on field recordings and sounds from the Lofoten archipelago, an island chain along Norway’s northern coastline starting in February 2013. Angélica Castelló met biologist and bioacoustics researcher Heike Vester, who founded the organization Ocean Sounds, which is dedicated to the research of marine mammals and the protection of the marine environment. The vibrations, caused by underwater detonations of the expanding oil industry, that are reflected back provide information to map the location, density, shape and composition of the rock layers, but they are also a massive intervention in the natural sound world of aquatic life.

With “sonic blue”, the musician creates her own imaginary underwater world that immerses the audience into the great sea of sound produced by her subgreatbass recorder, Castelló’s main instrument. The composition process of this piece is an examination of the profound in yet another respect, for to Angélica Castelló the sea also symbolizes the subconscious.

In 2014, “Sonic Blue” won the Outstanding Artist Award – Interdisciplinarity from the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Arts and Culture

 

Angélica Castelló is a composer and Sound Artist. Her sound work and compositions concentrates on fragility, dreamworld and the subconscious. Performs continuously solo or in cooperations everywhere between Mexico City and Vienna. Numerous compositions for ensembles, radio works as well as installations that operate at the interface of music, performance and visual arts. Several releases on labels like Interstellar records, Mikroton recordings, Monotype records, Mosz, chamafu nocords, Orlando Records, einklang_records, Mandorla Label, Thalamos, upside down records.

 

Christian Schröder brings together field recordings of isolated cars at night and digital noise bursts simulating rain. The digitally generated drop sound depicts nature in its hyper-realistic and spatial dimension. The stereo field recordings of the lonely vehicles are collaged into unreal intersections in the 4-channel setup at the Kassenhalle.

 

Christian Schröder makes sound and composition tangible and expands them in different media. Since studying sound and media art, composition, electronic music and conceptual art, he has been interested in interdisciplinarity. He works as a sound artist in the visual arts and as a composer and musician in the performing arts. In addition to solo performances, in which algorithmic compositions and improvisations are often used, he often collaborates with artists from different disciplines.

 

The series of sound interventions at the Otto Wagner Kassenhalle explores the concept of living matter and questions the notion of nature. Curated by Elisabeth Falkensteiner.