a garden of forking paths – Finale: Concrescence I

Concrescence I by Manja Ristić

sonic blooms within the bones, shimmer

in layers unwrapped,

and so revealed oblivion flickers

and its surface foams in gently twisted corners,

cyan voice fumbled between memories and an eardrum

it is fading

silently. Earth is hurtling away.

waves are slapping the mounted chambers,

and I can hear Mercurial screams.

wires are way louder than anyone suspects,

machines too,

and the compressed air

and the water artichokes,

all blooming.

Concrescence I – is a radio work with an abstract narrative built around visceral sonic layering in an unintentional quest to provoke the debonair but innate memory flow. Not impeded by logic, it is made out of field recordings confronting contrasting spaces and sound sources.

The piece is a triptych, describing a journey without a cause, tailored from recordings made with no specific intention. Concretely, from the enchanted forest of the Ugljenica Bay on the island of Silba and gravel crumbling under the weight of the waves from Korčula’s archipelago, to the Mercurial EM noises of resampled NASA sounds and the noises of machines and electrical grids in the basement of the Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. The journey ends in Rokova 13, in Split. On the window overlooking the narrow street just off the Diocletian Palace.

I always wondered what it was like for Luc Ferrari to work with the “window” field recording while making the infamous Presque Rien, so I finally did it myself. But not in Vela Luka, I decided to do it in Split while waiting for the boat to Vela Luka, and then later soak the material into various below and above sea sounds from the island of Korčula.

Simply, it is hard to say what the piece is about except that it is quite clear that it builds up into a concrescence of memories. Their subtle but turbulently disembodied geometries melt into a quasi-cinematic flow, offering to the listener an abundance of imaginative conditions, semi-hypnotic wanderings and moody dwellings.

The sound piece is followed by a poem under the same title.

Manja Ristić, born in Belgrade in 1979, is a violinist, sound artist, published poet, curator and researcher. Manja’s sound related practice beside contemporary performance in the field of instrumental electro–acoustics, is focused on interdisciplinary approaches to sound and field recording as well as experimental radio arts. Manja works and lives on the island of Korčula, Croatia.

http://manjaristic.blogspot.com/

mastering: LaPlant Studio, Belgrade

cover art by Atkins, Anna, 1799-1871, Photographs of British algae: cyanotype impressions, The New York Public Library, NYPL catalog ID: b11861683 https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/