Paper short abstract:

This AV work uses songs of local communities around the world and incorporates western music thus contrasting local communities versus modern societies. The presentation intends to evoke in the audience awareness of and reflection on fast transformations in the world helping for a spiritual journey.

Paper long abstract:

I recorded all audio and video material presented. I made these field recordings while as part of my studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in the tonmeister program from 2012-2018. During the years 2015 to 2018, I specifically focused on recording traditional musics among local communities, using high quality audio. I made these recording in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi provinces of China, the Philippines, the Ukraine, and the former Yugoslavia. I also arranged recording sessions in the studios of Royal Danish Academy of Music and in the studio at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with musicians originating from Europe, China, India and Mongolia. 

The first live performance integrating and manipulating these various elements with the aim of bringing audience members into a meditative state took place on September 21, 2018. Each further performance-screening will be a unique experience, since the audio and video are mixed live, interacting with each other and the atmosphere of the given space and each performance context. Also, material from future field works will be added to the existing pool of recordings from which I extract the material. After the first performance, it became clear that we were able to transform the auditorium into a spiritual space; a space where one can feel and practically connect to the work, the performers, and to other audience members. Such a form of presentation crosses borders between ethnomusicological research, fine arts and ritual.