SEMI SILENT

A sound work exploring multiple perspectives on water and rivers, the passage of time and the power of water as a primordial element. We hear from the river police who enforce the law on the waterways, a local archaeologist who explores the liminal intertidal zones picking through the centuries of rubbish and debris to make sense of the past and present, divers talking us through the experience and sensations of being submerged beneath the depths and a chorus of voices sharing their fears of water and dreams of drowning.

Fragment of an audiowalk in The Hague, which explores the connection between sound and commemoration. The composition centers around the interplay of two voices: the vocalist and the witness. The score for the vocalist was created using field recordings of industrial machines, which the voice imitates. These sounds, while not human in origin, evoke "emotionality" and serve as a metaphor for the experience of war. The presence of weapons and technology plays a significant role in war, but it is fundamentally a manifestation of human experience. The voice of the witness describes the experience of war in terms of sound. In the film industry, the sounds of explosions and war have become familiar to everyone. While working on this composition, the challenge was to share the experience without turning the witness's story into entertainment content.

An Emotional Encyclopedia of War is a radio art project launched in the summer of 2022 that investigates the transformation that comes with war via the locus of emotional emergency. Trying to get a grip on the new emotional states she'd undergone, Anna Kravets still questions the imperceptibility of war experience. Having realized how discordant it is with the life beyond its borders, she tries to invent frameworks that would pass under the framing barriers of mass media coverage. In her auto-ethnographic radio piece, Anna describes her feelings of living during war, integrating them in a palette of experiences which belong to others, strangers, foreigners. Called out in a time of war, those experiences are featured in her piece together with her desperate attempts of reflection and composing sound in a post-invasion paralysis.   The project was born during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES program of SEMI SILENT, made possible together with Q-O2 and ASCR in Brussels, and co-financed by AFCN. In 2023, it traveled to CTM festival as part of its Radio Lab with Deutschlandfunk Kultur (winner of the 2022 edition), ORF musikprotokoll im steirischer herbst festival, Ö1 Kunstradio, The Wire magazine, and Goethe Institut. A new iteration of Emergency Rehearsal took place during Sonic Narratives festival in Timișoara (Romania) in 2023, and the Week of Sound in Brussels and Charleroi in 2024.   An Emotional Encyclopedia of War was premiered (in German) in February 2024 at Deutschlandradio Klangkunst.   Photo: Udo Siegfriedt, 2023   Anna Kravets is a radio and performance artist, journalist and podcast producer. In her work, she uses direct and recorded speech, stages recorded interactions, makes sonic experiments with materials, spaces and soundscape, exploring the experience of the self with its limits and possibilities. Anna studied cultural studies in Kyiv and anthropology in Marseille. In 2017-2022, Anna presented the Art Of Work Talk Show on Radio Ukraine International and Cashmere Radio. In 2017-2018, Anna also produced and organized an experimental media platform called Radio International during the Kyiv Biennial and the Warsaw Under Construction Festival. Anna is based in Kyiv, Ukraine.   Voices, contributors, and participants: Aditi Srivastava, Alessandra Prado Soler, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang, Amin Behmanesh, Annu Koetter, Carmelo Ianuzzo, Caroline Profanter, Constanze Aka, Diana Duta, Dimitra Kousteridou, Erika Sirola, Golo Föllmer, Greg Kieser, Hanna Sauer, Joachim Glaude, Julia Eckhardt, Juliette Escudé, Kai-Uwe Reinhold, Laetitia Defendini, Mamoru Watanabe, Michel Ivor, Nir Jacob, Sabri Meddeb, Tanya Ringer, Virgile Loiseau, Wouter Hillaert, and Wynona Ringer. The voices were collected in different places from 2022 onward as part of Emergency Rehearsal series of performative interactions, that became a tool for mutual translation and acknowledgement of complicated experience.   Production: SEMI SILENT, Q-O2, ACSR, Deutschlandfunk Kultur, CTM Festival, Goethe-Institut, and ORF.

ANALYTICAL SWIMMING. Left ear under water by Sillyconductor, 2023_____I am floating on one side, one ear submerged, the other relatively dry and pointing to the sky. In my left ear I listen to what's underneath, underwater, unseen and untouched. My right ear acknowledges the world above. In the midst of it all, there's me, relatively cold. I am steadily moving downstream, breathing and making involuntary noises. Beneath the surface of the Danube there are mysterious bugs, sizzling crevices, maybe lava, who knows, it's out of my reach. Above me lies the known world of birds and people and all things visible. And bats, which are something special. I always imagined big ships would generate a lot of low frequencies underwater. I was so wrong. Because now I can finally see it with my right eye and I hear it with my left ear._____*recorded on hydrophones and ultrasonic microphones_____Sound piece composed with recordings made during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at Port Cetate, Dolj county, Romania, in September 2022._____Sillyconductor is one of the monikers of Cătălin Matei, a composer and sound artist from Bucharest. His work reflects his different interests, from innovating recording techniques for church organs, creating improvisational instruments and interactive installations to setting up sonic playgrounds for kids or writing music for theatre or games, always trying to blend mathematical rigor with a healthy dose of the absurd. For the past years he has been working with research institutes on different bioart projects looking for means of sonifiying of the unperceivable._____Recordings, composition and mixing by Sillyconductor for SEMI SILENT.

SWINGING DRY WATER. An everlasting ludic space of poetry by Jasmina Al-Qaisi and Veronika Svobodová, 2022_____Using the shore of the Danube as a whole orchestra of sounding and resonating matter, Jasmina Al-Qaisi and Veronika Svobodová make audible an everlasting ludic space of poetry. This geography, where they compose is marked by drought, wetness, scarcity, wealth, silence, noise which in permanent relation with the multiple legends about fountains, ghosts, forests, allows a multi-sensual reading of the space beyond binaries. While ‘swinging dry water' the two artists played with a blur of polarities of time, space, materiality and perception, verbalized and sounded a multilingual text in the forest, on the water, in empty fountains and in their heads._____Sound piece composed with recordings made during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at Port Cetate, Dolj county, Romania, in September 2022, and premiered in R{A}DIO{CUSTICA}, Czech Radio Vltava in November 2022._____Jasmina Al-Qaisi is a writer for voice and paper appearing sometimes in other forms such as a walking scientist, the schnelle musikalische hilfe service, or as the only agent for the self-entitled-self-entitlement-office. Jasmina is as well listening with her hands and makes waves on free, independent, temporary, mobile radios and public radios writing with sound._____Veronika Svobodová is an artist, musician, and scenographer. Her approach to work with sound reveals her relation to stage design, art of installation and performance. In her work she connects the aspects of space, time, and situation, often it is a response to specific places in the landscape or architecture._____Recordings, composition and mixing by Jasmina Al-Qaisi and Veronika Svobodová for SEMI SILENT._____Co-produced by R{A}DIO{CUSTICA}, Czech Radio Vltava.

WE SEE BENEATH. An unfamiliar place by Lloyd Dunn, 2023_____A dry description of the locale will not satisfy the task of describing the place; especially when the experience of it interleaves objective perception, memory, dilated time, and all the other observations that come from being in an unfamiliar place over a period of days. And so we are left with this set of allusions._____Sound piece composed with recordings made during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at Port Cetate, Dolj county, Romania, in September 2022.______Lloyd Dunn is a multimedia artist working in machine-based media for 40 years. During the 1980s and 90s he edited and published the graphic arts magazines Photostatic and Retrofuturism, which were circulated worldwide and are collected by many prominent archives. In 1987, Dunn, together with some close friends, co-founded the Tape-beatles, who were among a few early recording experimenters whose work explicitly challenged intellectual property and copyright. Since 2009, Dunn's main project has been the project nula.cc, the online presence for a series of filecasts initiated to further explore his long-standing interest in machine-based art forms, appropriation and collage, time-based media and design. Dunn currently lives and works in Prague._____Recordings, composition and mixing by Lloyd Dunn for SEMI SILENT.

EBB AND FLOW. Aural encounters in the floodplains by pablo sanz, 2023_____An imaginary day, from dawn to sunset. It meanders through aural spaces based on encounters with human and other-than-human lifeforms and their movements, shaped by the presence of the river._____Sound piece composed with recordings made during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at Port Cetate, Dolj county, Romania, in September 2022._____Artist, composer and researcher. The work of pablo sanz includes site-determined and public art projects, immersive spatial audio installations and concerts, and compositions for headphone listening spread through exhibitions, broadcasts and releases. With a focus on the limits and thresholds of perception and attention, his practice investigates listening, sound space, more-than-human vitality, aural energies, and otherness. Listening becomes a political act intended to resist dominant tendencies in contemporary societies, cultivating alternative forms of being and thinking. His work has been experienced internationally in diverse contexts. He has participated in numerous artistic residencies, received commissions and support from multiple organizations, and regularly facilitates talks, seminars and workshops._____Recordings, composition and mixing by pablo sanz for SEMI SILENT.

MAYBE NOTHING. An environmental thriller by Jeanne Debarsy, 2023_____What happened? / We don't know exactly / Of course, there are rumors and echoes / But they are perhaps only reminiscences / Time and space seem out of tune / Behaviors have also changed / But still, the Danube doesn't stop flowing._____The translation of a precise feeling that cradled the 10-day residency in the small village of Port Cetate, in Romania: a strange feeling of the end of the world, with a historically low water level that prevented navigation on the Danube, a very prevalent animal kingdom, few humans, the impression of evolving either in the past or in the future but certainly not in the present._____Sound piece composed with recordings made during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at Port Cetate, Dolj county, Romania, in September 2022._____Jeanne Debarsy (b. 1986) is a sound artist based in Belgium where she studied to become a sound engineer. She works in various domains of sound and collaborates with many artists in cinema, radio, music, and various arts. She is particularly passionate about radio media because it gives her freedom of action and expression precious to her eyes. She continues to develop her own sound language to refine her personal research and to explore the fields of performance and installation._____Recordings, composition and mixing by Jeanne Debarsy for SEMI SILENT._____Voices: Jasmina Al-Qaisi, Lloyd Dunn, Sillyconductor, pablo sanz, Veronika Svobodová._____Co-produced by Babelfish, 2023.

Nest. A day off Author: Abby Lee Tee, 2022 The sounds of privileged life in a small, cosy flat while a crisis after another exacerbating in the outside world. Very close encounters with gurgling stomachs, diligent small critters, dishwashers, washing machines, moka pots, tea kettles and a hailstorm on the other side of the windows. Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES 2022. Abby Lee Tee is an austrian musician, sound designer & field recordist. His fascination for the divisions and crossovers between noise and music, as well as nature and culture, can be seen in his work with installations, sound-walks, sound design for theatre and audiovisual projects, as well as records on labels such as Shash, Czaszka, Never Anything, Vertical Music, Falt, Dinzu Artefacts and Accidental. Since 2020, he's researching beavers and their vocalizations, winning the “Sound of the Year” Awards in the category “Best Naturally Occuring Sound” as well as the “Boughton Fieldcraft” Award by the Wildlife Sound Recording Society. https://abbyleetee.com Recordings and composition by Abby Lee Tee for SEMI SILENT. Mix & Mastering by Christian Ghahremanian

Ceaușescu's Teeth. A biting collection of sounds from profound Romania (Romanian) Author: Sillyconductor, 2015 “Related to God”: voice memos as a documenting obsession Some years ago, my then very young daughter had a funny but pertinent question: was Ceaușescu's dentist too scared of the dictator to fix his teeth? At that time I was traveling a lot around the country and, as it happens, when you travel by taxi, bus, train or even elevator, people tend to talk to you. I always had my phone ready to record, since I was ready to sacrifice sound quality for the sake of not missing the moment. I recorded for two years, between 2013 and 2015, whatever I found interesting, overbearing, fun or infuriating. Kids, taxi drivers, radios, friends, birds, toilets, they all somehow melted in a collage that had God and family as recurring themes and tells a story that is just as intrusive and fear-driven as Ceaușescu's dentist. Sound composition originally presented during Sâmbăta Sonoră in June 2015 at ODD, Bucharest. Photo: Nicu Ilfoveanu, 2021 * Sillyconductor is a sound artist from Bucharest. He performs, writes music for theatre, games, or films, builds sound installations or instruments inspired by science and humour. Sometimes he entertains or educates kids with his Sgomot series of sound workshops. Recording, editing, and mixing by Sillyconductor.

Măr din măr. How I made peace with my garden (Romanian) Author: Maria Balabaș, 2021 I started with a recording made in the garden with our little boy. We were getting ready to go to Bucharest, so we planted a few more things and we said goodbye. “The garden looks like our life: the things are mixed, have their own calendars, there are no 3 rows alike” (Vlad). It is a continuum. While listening to the recording, I made peace with this space filled with different plants, some eatable, others not. Even if this garden asks for more time and soul than I am ready to give, it has a huge contribution not only to our daily food, but to our imaginary. I dedicate this composition to Vlad, my husband, and to Bogdan, our son (both “words creators”!), and to our garden for the delicious things it gave to our stomachs and ears. Maria Balabaș Producer's note: Maria Balabaș moved to the countryside a few years ago, though she has the heart of a city person. "Măr din măr" translates as “apple from the apple tree,” but it also recalls the use of metonymy in the folkloric Romanian songs. Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of the 2021 edition of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES. Maria Balabaș is a journalist and musician. She is the host of the Dimineața crossover show (Morning Crossover) from Radio România Cultural and has created projects devoted to new forms of radio creation (Generația sonoră/Sound Generation). In 2014 she was nominated for Prix Europa (Berlin) for the documentary Maria Tănase – Urban Soundtrack for a Diva. She initiated musical groups such as Avant'n'Gard and Soare Staniol, inspired by improvisational techniques, electronic music, acoustic music. Creates installations generated by the artistic interest in the form of field-specific auditory memory. Recording, editing, and mixing by Maria Balabaș for SEMI SILENT.

Applecore. Portrait of an urban garden Author: Cosmin Nicolae, 2021 There's a garden between the buildings where I live. At first it was probably planned and landscaped. Then the plants (largely bushy, ornamental) grew naturally wild. I guess someone threw an apple core out the window one day. A shy apple tree has grown, nothing more than a handful of twigs. This year it bore fruit: four apples. Usually, not much comes out of apple seeds. Apparently this time it has. It usually takes between five and twelve years for the apple tree sprung from seed to bear fruit. 'Applecore' is the story of the apple seed that sprouted in a wild garden between buildings in Berlin. Sound piece commissioned by SEMI SILENT in the frame of the 2021 edition of SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES. Cosmin Nicolae is an anti-disciplinary artist working with image, sound, text to produce works of intimate reflection at the intersection of autoethnography, psychogeography and possible futures. Opening the door on Hessle Audio over a decade ago - an outlet that has gone on to become a defining voice within electronic music in the 21st Century, Nicolae's list of affiliations reads like a who's who of top tier contemporary music record labels. Cosmin Nicolae's work glides between music, film, hyperstitional theory fiction and a mix of media that formulate peripheral points of view. Lives and works in Berlin. www.cosminnicolae.com Recording, editing, and mixing by Cosmin Nicolae for SEMI SILENT.

Authors: Irina Botea Bucan & Jon Dean, 2021. A sonic portrait of Tescani through assembling all of the “da” sounds from our daily conversations and informal interviews facilitated during our residency period. The sound translates indistinctively as both an affirmation (da = yes) and doubt (da' is the shortcut sound for dar = but). In the context of Tescani (both village and George Enescu residency) two distinct temporalities co-exist: that of the short and temporary visits of invited artists alongside the repetitive working cycles of the local inhabitants; witnessed in the crops growing underneath high voltage electricity poles. All of these actions are situated in the vicinity of Tristan Tzara's birthplace. Oedaadaao is a title without registered meaning or definition… the choice of these letters represents the ongoing journey through Enescu's Oedipus and Tzara's sound poetry both of which have their origins within the local area. Sound piece created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at the George Enescu National Museum in Tescani Village, Bacău County, Romania in September 2021.

Conservation Conversation. A Sound Essay Author: La Pesch, 2021 (English, German, Romanian, Ukrainian) How to approach a new place? And what to take home from it? The rural area of Tescani in Romanian Moldavia is characterized by reverberating sounds waving between hills, farming, and plenty of dogs of course. Up the hill on the edge of the village lies a small museum in honor of the Romanian composer George Enescu. A mansion with its own little forest. But the grandeur of the past shows cracks. Humidity sneaks up the walls. Red, aristocratic patterned carpet hosts historic notes, furniture, and instruments. Mice ate the hammer felt of the piano – the piano on which Enescu finished his opera Oedipe. Today it is untouchable. Packs of visitors come in coaches, have a quick look, bath in some mellow notes, and climb their vehicle again to take off. What is conserved along the way? The piece follows, questions, deconstructs, and reconstructs the process of conservation. It starts a conversation with the ghosts of the past. Open exploration, improvisation, and coincidences play a major role in the piece as most of it is composed by movement in space on-location and not by layering tracks. It drifts intuitively between scenes, thoughts, and impressions. Essayistically, it weaves together reoccurring themes in a meandering way that invites listeners to get lost in the imagination of a place. Sound piece created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at the George Enescu National Museum in Tescani Village, Bacău County, Romania in September 2021. Carina Pesch (*1983), aka La Pesch, lives in Leipzig and works as sound and voice artist, author, director, and curator – mainly in the fields of radio, installation, performance, and the walking arts for public broadcasters, museums, international festivals, and cultural institutions. She co-curates the gathered listening event GERÄUSCHKULISSE. Her own art works show a strong sense for the specific characteristics of phenomena, people, and places. They oscillate between narrative and purely sound-based with strong fascination for the thin borderline between fiction and reality. Often she uses spoken word that transcends sentences and syntax and reaches a pure atmosphere or emotional quality. She chooses a subjective approach towards the world and sets in scene encounters creating contact points in dialogue. Her works have been honored with numerous residencies, awards, nominations, and stipends (e.g. Prix Phonurgia Nova, Grand Prix Nova, Prix Europa). www.textbote.de Recording, editing, and mixing by Carina Pesch for SEMI SILENT.

Animals are good. A cross section of rhythms of matter and meaning. Studium Author: Anna Kravets, 2022 What is the difference between talking with and talking about nonhuman animals? Commonly, the former engages a certain performative speech within discourses of subjugation and/ or affection, and the latter rather involves those of superiority, utility and commodity. Are human languages an ever blooming possibility, or still a strict limitation? Les non-dupes errent? Vocal rhythms caught in the middle of a rescue operation suggest that other purposes mobilize different type of talk. Tactile, absorbing and memetic, the rhythms that permeate and structure daily lives are those we long to recreate in all the strictness of the human beat. Necessarily though, there is a possibility or an imaginary of their violation. Rhythms extracted by animating non-animate objects discharge each in its proper continuation. Then also, Homo homini lupus est. Traveling from Hobbes to the Garden of Eden, Emil and I are strolling around what went wrong in the society of humans and the common sense of its relation to nonhuman animals. Animals do not possess knowledge, but have a sense of moderation. What exactly do we attribute to this notion of knowledge, and why are humans deprived of that sense of moderation? Sound composition created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT at the George Enescu National Museum in Tescani Village, Bacău County, Romania in September 2021. * Anna Kravets (Kyiv, Ukraine) is a researcher holding a double Master's in cultural studies and social sciences. Her fields of activity include radio art and radio journalism, podcasting, translation. In her work and research projects, she has addressed linguistic aspects of power relations and mechanisms of collective imaginary, anthropology of voice, work in migration, experimental media. In 2017, she founded the Radio International experimental radio workshop. Her current projects oscillate between work and routine philosophies, conditions of precarity, shifted subjectivity and participative vocalizations. She runs a radio show about the transformations of work and leisure on RUI/ Cashmere Radio. All sounds (recorded, composed, edited) by Anna Kravets for SEMI SILENT

Outtakes of the project Syntopia:Bega (by Andreea Săsăran & Abby Lee Tee), recorded in July 2021 while collecting material for an audiovisual essay about the widely ramified river and canal system Bega in Timișoara, coming across numerous hidden places where frogs and their vocal expressions were dominating the soundscape – above and below the surface of the water.

A huit clos in the head of a unique character, a confined space for a possible couple during the long days of the first pandemic lock-down of 2020. | The house, the domestic space in which we were constrained to isolation against danger, is throwing us in psychic depths. The place of calmness, silence, and relaxation have become a hostile territory, a stage for grave scenes. With the prolonged confinement and the growing anxiety, the smallest gestures can engage unmanageable angst. The domestic life become extremely fragile, the families and the couples are crumbling. "Domestic Hostile" explores a small territory of something we called “domestic hostility” – a drama inside an apartment where we try to survive and stay sane. | Sound piece composed exclusively online, a collaboration between a sound artist coming from the contemporary arts and a poet interested in films. | Supported by Fundația9 of Bucharest in the frame of Artists Rooms program, May 2020.

Closer. A poem by Valentina Chiriță (Romanian, English, Ukrainian) Author: Anna Kravets January 2021 Closer (Valentina Chiriță) Light, in those lands, was an advanced synesthesia condensed in sound, movement and vibration, beyond gravity. Source-sorceress, put your finger on the wound, reach the focal point, extract the war, the riot, and the chaos, bring out the peace, the love and the silence. The peace, the love and the silence were the essential universal coordinates. The smoldering horn and the shrieking trumpets, surrounded by discreet harmonies, wavy distinctions: the teguments were all enduring a lack of sentience. To dislodge the melted nuclei of the sun-sisters: how can I get closer? To cherish the pulse in all that separates us, the exhausted salts, after so many recrystallizations to feed them at simultaneous births of twisted galaxies. I look down on you all from my blind spot: frowning Asthenes, keen to burn everything down, Two-faced Makari - slimy, hated by all, bursting of hatred themselves, tormented by bad climate, with stolen sun - on whose planet the dumbest Flyters kept skuttering, destroying what was left of the food chain, then Sloots, marching on their own hair, launching telemantic attacks, Storlings - flocks of Daytinghales collapsed in themselves, appearing on a whim, disappearing without notice - absent Spirrons, arrogant Twitts. Out of these coexisting realities, apathy is the cruelest foe. I see now: they beg to be, waiting for a mysterious love. Translated from Romanian to English by Bogdan Perdivară, and to Ukrainian by Anna Kravets. The piece is composed by Anna Kravets with a poem by Valentina Chiriță in the frame of POLYPHONIC ECHOES, a project organized by Jumătatea plină for SEMI SILENT. Partners: Czech Center and the National Museum of Romanian Literature. With the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. * Anna Kravets (Kyiv, Ukraine) is a researcher holding a double Master’s in cultural studies and social sciences. Her fields of activity include radio art and radio journalism, podcasting, translation. In her work and research projects, she has addressed linguistic aspects of power relations and mechanisms of collective imaginary, anthropology of voice, work in migration, experimental media. In 2017, she founded the Radio International experimental radio workshop. Her current projects oscillate between work and routine philosophies, conditions of precarity, shifted subjectivity and participative vocalizations. She runs a radio show about the transformations of work and leisure on RUI/ Cashmere Radio. Valentina Chiriță, poet and performer. She published the volume umilirea animalelor (CDPL, 2010) under the pseudonime val chimic, and poetry in the anthologies De ce pisicile n-au coadă (Art, 2017) and Hotel Cosmos (frACTalia, 2019). She was part of the performance groups EGG NO EGO and Local Goddesses, with contributions in street art, installation, invented rituals, asemic writing, and guided meditation, for public spaces or art galleries. In 2001, she coordinated the Bucharest international festival Live Art Platform. All sounds (recorded, composed, edited) by Anna Kravets for SEMI SILENT Voice: Anna Kravets

COVID EXPERIENCE. Surrender into the hands of others (binaural) Author: Ana Teodora Popa November, 2020 How does a severe case of Covid-19 really feels like? A binaural creation depicting a first-person experience. Trigger warning. Surrender your last wish into the hands of others. „Covid Experience” is part of the „Pan-Demon" interdisciplinary performative installation, National University of Arts George Enescu, Iaşi, Romania. * Ana Teodora Popa (b.1988) is a sound engineer and composer from Iași, Romania. She studied at Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology and worked as a live sound engineer for the London City Music Theatre. In 2013, she started her dream job at the National Theatre in Iași, Romania, and later became the Sound and Video Department leader. To stay involved in more creative projects, in 2017 she become a freelancer. In 2018, she won third place in the Grand Prix Nova competition with a nonverbal binaural piece, created using only mono/stereo files and a unique editing method. She takes part in innovative and challenging independent projects, including theater plays, experimental performances, sound installations and films. She worked with Regenerator and Descentrat projects, and she participated to Sonic Future Residencies. She currently writes music and works on her own binaural audio research and technique. Her artistic goal is to reach the listeners at a level where they can relate and be moved by what is already inside them. Artistic direction: Octavian Jighirgiu Script: Ana Teodora Popa Composition, binaural microphone development, recording, editing, and sound design: Ana Teodora Popa Voices: Octavian Jighirgiu, Sebastian Bădărău, Andreea Darie, Cosmin Alupoaei, Smaranda Mihalache, Alin Voicu, Andrei Paraschiv, Andreea Nechita, Nicola Zaharia, Ioana Alberta Dima, Georgiana Hîrtopanu, Bianca Ciubotariu, Mariana Paladi, Alexandru Maxim, Vanessa Sarkadi, and Alexandra Antal. Produced by the National University of Arts George Enescu, Iaşi, Romania TRANSCRIPT (EN) Police car outside: “Stay at home! Obey the military ordinance!” TV: “Someone from District 2 requested the intervention of an emergency crew. So far we have 50 confirmed cases of Covid virus...” A knock on the door Ambulance nurse: Good evening. Ambulance driver: Good evening, we called earlier... Ambulance nurse: Ok, please lay down now, easy... We are here to help, no need to be scared, everything is alright. Isolation pod zipper closes Ambulance nurse: Feeling good? We are here with you at all times. Ambulance driver: Let us pick it up. Easy, careful. I got it. Ambulance nurse: We are moving, alright? We are outside. Isolation pod enters the ambulance Ambulance nurse: 10 22 5, we got the patient, and we are on our way to the hospital. Ambulance sirens and labored breathing Nurse 1: No, no! We are already at capacity! Go to the room at the end of the hall! Ambulance nurse: What do we do? Grab this from the other side. Nurse 1: We will admit him upstairs if needed. Ambulance nurse: Move the stretcher a little. Isolation pod zipper opens Ambulance nurse: We are here, alright? Common, at three. One, two, three, go! Head down, please. Good, now there is going to be a nurse coming soon to admit you. Just hold on for now and wait, ok? Nurse 2: Mariana! The Covid phone, do you have it?... The Covid phone! Nurse 3: Give me your hand. Hold on. We have a patient with fever over here! Nurse 2: Yeah, ok, ok! Nurse 3: There will be a nurse coming soon to check your blood pressure, and after that, when the CT is available, there will be someone to take you, ok? Nurse 4: How is it going, Mr. Paraschiv, are you feeling any better? Does the cough still keep you up at night? Is there someone else from your family who tested positive? Nurse 2: Mariana! Come here. So, the patient here, is now off the oxygen. I took his mask off at 9:30 and...

About the future, a poem by V. Leac (English, Romanian, German) Author: Cristian Fierbințeanu, 2020 about the future (V.Leac) it is undoubtable that the giant wave will wash through the dryland with an amazing speed. it is difficult to imagine such a speed... the flish are hidden somewhere in the wave, right on the tip of the wave, they are helpless, so they just sit there… the wave crashes into a mountain – boom! and the flish are thrown into the desert. everyone thinks they are dead; it’s just an illusion, a false illusion. now, please, pay attention: - look carefully at this spot. do you notice something very very fast is moving and getting thicker? well, gentlemen, it’s the double-jawed worm. it is born inside the flish and then it eats it from within – did you see? it’s very easy. then, by scent, the kangaroo-snail comes – you can see it in this picture; it’s got one leg, and this leg was once a tail. life is extremely tough in the desert. everything happens very very fast – and when you least expect it out comes the dragonfly-lizard that runs/flies with over 115 km per hour. it grabs the snail and devours it ultra-rapidly. the dragonfly-lizard is chocked by a trapping flower. everything happens...life is extremely tough… now we’re entering the giant super-forest: - see how the canopy moves? you’re scared, aren’t you? don’t worry. it’s just an eight-legged mammoth, it’s vegetarian. - see this green spot on the tree? it crawls after the mammoth and makes it so that the mammoth steps in it; it is highly intelligent: it has set up house inside the mammoth. can you believe that this spot currently unknown to us can bring the mammoth on the brink of despair? at first we were also amazed. it all happens very fast. in two million years from now, life will be extremely tough… we have showed you these images to get an idea about how life on earth is going to be. it all happens very very fast. Translated from Romanian to English by Alexandra M. Păun and to German by Gabriela Fierbințeanu. The piece is composed by Cristian Fierbințeanu with a poem by V. Leac in the frame of POLYPHONIC ECHOES, a project organized by Jumătatea plină for SEMI SILENT. Partners: Czech Center and the National Museum of Romanian Literature. With the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. * Cristian Fierbințeanu is an independent musician, author, producer and composer, member of art-pop project Fierbințeanu. The band performed live on several important European scenes, including Berlin Konzerthaus (Dvorak remastered), and released albums via independent Romanian labels. Their work have been presented in international contemporary art festivals, Fierbințeanu being the winners of multiple "best" video and music awards (Phonurgia Nova, UK International Radio Drama Festival, Grand Prix Nova, Dvorak Marathon). As part of electronic band Plurabelle, he released an album via the French label Stellar Kinematics. He was also member of free-impro/contemporary collective PFA Orchestra, powered by Sâmbăta Sonoră. V. Leac lives and works between Arad and Bucharest. Published poetry : Seymour: sonată pentru cornet de hârtie, Vinea Publishing (2005, 2006, 2013); Dicționar de vise, Cartea Românească Publishing, 2006; Lucian, CDPL, 2009; Toți sunt îngrijorați, TracusArte Publishing, Collection NEO, 2010, 2015; Unchiul este încântat, Charmides Publishing, 2013. Founding member of the literary collectiv Celebrul animal and of the magazine Ca și Cum. Founder of MOI in Timișoara in 2012, together with Bianca Baila; curator of W.A.D. Arad, 2014. Films: 2014, The Village Drones (I); 2015, The Village Drones (II); Trasee descriptive cu intrus. His latest volume, Monoideal, published by Nemira in 2018, was granted the Radio România Cultural Award for Poetry. All sounds (recorded, composed, edited) by Cristian Fierbințeanu for SEMI SILENT

Greean Areas. A poem by Gabi Eftimie (English, Romanian) Author: Ana Teodora Popa green areas (Gabi Eftimie) Pretending to be a tourist in my own town, I take the bus to the last stop. It doesn`t take long and all filters disappear when you`re on autopilot. Soon, I arrive to my destination. My electrified hair is spread in the same direction as I’m headed to. I pick up crumbs left behind of my fellow passengers and I try to guess: bread, biscuits, falafel? Ahead:” the park, the green lung of the city.” In the deepest depth, fishes hobble, enduring like uranium. The crows` croaking doesn’t pierce through anymore. The black-throated loon spreads out its cry like a fishnet through the lake´s surface. I surrender to these inputs. Like in some guided meditation. The park, now on mute, is lost in space. Pigeons coo their mantras. Happiness to all humankind! Let us be spared by weakness! May all care for their fellows´ well-being! Don´t let anyone experience gloom and sorrow! Suddenly, a green, lit water-bus pops up in the surrounding twilight. Translated from Romanian to English by the poet. The piece is composed by Ana Teodora Popa with a poem by Gabi Eftimie in the frame of POLYPHONIC ECHOES, a project organized by Jumătatea plină for SEMI SILENT. Partners: Czech Center and the National Museum of Romanian Literature. With the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. * Ana Teodora Popa (b.1988) is a sound engineer and composer from Iași, Romania. She studied at Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology and worked as a live sound engineer for the London City Music Theatre. In 2013, she started her dream job at the National Theatre in Iași, Romania, and later became the Sound and Video Department leader. To stay involved in more creative projects, in 2017 she become a freelancer. In 2018, she won third place in the Grand Prix Nova competition with a nonverbal binaural piece, created using only mono/stereo files and a unique editing method. She takes part in innovative and challenging independent projects, including theater plays, experimental performances, sound installations and films. She worked with Regenerator and Descentrat projects, and she participated to Sonic Future Residencies. She currently writes music and works on her own binaural audio research and technique. Her artistic goal is to reach the listeners at a level where they can relate and be moved by what is already inside them. Gabi Eftimie has been living in Sweden since 2011, where she teaches Swedish and translates literature and children’s books from German, Swedish, and English. Her debut poetry collection, ochi roșii polaroid. acesta este un test (Vinea) was published in 2006, followed by nordul e o stare de spirit (Charmides), in 2014. Her work was also featured in several anthologies in Romanian, Hungarian, German, Swedish, and English. She has participated in various festivals and workshops, among which the one organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Visby, Sweden in 2009. In 2020, she published her third book on nature: Sputnik în grădină (OMG), awarded by Sofia Nădejde Awards for literature written by women. Recorded, played, composed, edited by Ana Teodora Popa for SEMI SILENT. Voices: Ana Teodora Popa and Sebastian Bădărău

Baba Vanga: Predictions. Space Odyssey A poem by Dmitri Miticov (English, Czech, Romanian, French) Author: Ivan Palacký Baba Vanga: Predictions. Space Odyssey (Dmitri Miticov) 2020 — China becomes a world power. 2023 — The Earth’s orbit will slightly change 2025 — Europe will be ravaged. 2028 — A new source of energy is created. Hunger is eradicated. 2043 — Muslims take power in Europe. 2088 — A new disease will break out. People will grow old in seconds. 2097 — The disease will be cured 2100 — The man-made sun will shine on the dark side of the Planet. 2111 — People will become robots 2125 — Hungary will receive signals from outer space. 2154 — Animals become half people 2167 — A new religion 2187 — The eruption of two volcanoes is successfully stopped. 2221 — In the search for alien life, humanity encounters something terrible. 2273 — A new race is born. 2288 — Time travel will be achieved. New contacts with aliens will be made. 2291 — The sun goes cold 2304 — The Moon’s mystery is discovered 2480 — The Earth will be in darkness 3005 — There will be a war on Mars 3010 — A comet hits the Moon. A ring of stones and dust appears around the Earth. 3797 — There’s no more life on Terra. People will manage to live on other planets in the solar system. 3803 — A new planet is slowly populated. Less contact between people. The new planet’s climate affects the human body and mutations appear. 4308 — Due to some mutations, people began using more than 34% of their brains. They lost any notion of good and evil. 4509 — They meet God. 4599 — They achieve immortality. 4674 — Civilization reached its zenith. 340 billion people live on various planets. They begin to assimilate with aliens. 5076 — A new, bordering universe is discovered. 5078 — The decision is made to go beyond the end of the universe. About 40 percent of the population is opposed. 5079 — The end of the World. Translated from Romanian to English by Andrew Davidson-Novosivschei, and to Czech by Jiřina Vyorálková. The piece is composed by Ivan Palacký with a poem by Dmitri Miticov in the frame of POLYPHONIC ECHOES, a project organized by Jumătatea plină for SEMI SILENT. Partners: Czech Center and the National Museum of Romanian Literature. With the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. * Ivan Palacký plays amplified knitting machine Dopleta 180. He is a musician, an architect and a sound collector. Ivan Palacký has (in the 80s and the beginning of the 90s) played with various groups and taken part in several music projects. He – … was a member of the guitar/doublebass/bassoon group "Slede, zive slede" (Herring, live herring) – and currently performs in a audiovisual duo „Koberce, zaclony/Carpets, Curtains“ (w. filip Cenek). … is an enthusiastic member of Prague Improvisation Orchestra. … is a singer and guitar player of the „Pátí na světě/Fifth in the World“ band. … is a member of „Messier Objects“ quartet (with Klaus Filip, Andrea Neumann, and Toshimaru Nakamura). The quartet released a concert CD on label Ftarri (JP). … "writes" a sound diary from all his journeys - collects excerpts of stories, weird sounds and various "acoustic mistakes". … likes to take part in one-shot improvisational groups or duos (with Cremaster (ES), Ruth Barberán (ES) and Margarida Garcia (PT), Will Guthrie (AU), Andrea Neumann (DE), Klaus Filip (AT), Toshimaru Nakamura (JP)... ) as well as playing solo performances. Since 2005 his main interest has been to „dig out“ sounds from an amplified Dopleta 160 knitting machine from the 70s. Dmitri Miticov (1980), born in Târgoviște. Studied mathematics at the Transylvania University in Brașov. Poetry published books: Efectul de peliculă (Vinea, 2006), Numele meu e Dmitri (Paralela 45, 2010), Dmitri: uite viața (Casa de editură Max Blecher, 2012), Dmitri: genul cinic (Cartea Românească, 2015). In 2015, participated in the translation workshop organized by the Romanian Cultural ...

Orago Author: Manja Ristić A poem by Cosmina Moroșan (English, Serb-Croatian, Italian) orango We’re infecting bunkers in the porn landscape. The face halved by sunstroke is the other, more touching in the joy beyond all. They get fried in memories, inventing a game is a must (you are not at the edge of survival, but to you it seems everything leads that way) recollecting impressions with the face of a pilot who’ll lose his head ‘cause the one-second landscape is too lovely. Everything is shattered in your eyes like in the fires of a night fight. Rainbows that shuffled crusaders, as in the books, the character itself is its salvation, the little girls are still laughing, the boys assign jests to the plain. A battle where no one won under the Pleiades, pleiades of lights: a great rebellion taking the city by surprise; and a different fraction: while dropping chalices, heavy with the longing for lunch others caressed the fool. Translated from Romanian to English by Alexandra Găujan, and to Serb-Croatian by Manja Ristić. The piece is composed by Manja Ristić with a poem by Cosmina Moroșan in the frame of POLYPHONIC ECHOES, a project organized by Jumătatea plină for SEMI SILENT. Partners: Czech Center and the National Museum of Romanian Literature. With the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. * Manja Ristić (1979), born in Belgrade. Violinist, sound artist, published poet. Finished postgraduate studies at the RCM, London (2004). As a classical solo / chamber musician, composer and improvisational musician Manja performed across Europe and in the US. In her recent work, Manja is active in the field of instrumental electro–acoustics, soundscape composition, field recording & interdisciplinary sound related research. She is founder of the Association of Multimedia Artists „Auropolis“ (since 2004), that by her guidance developed distinctive number of cultural events, international projects and educational modules in the fields of contemporary scene and multimedia arts. She works and lives between the island of Korčula (Croatia) and Belgrade (Serbia). www.manjaristic.blogspot.com Cosmina Moroșan (1989), born in Dorohoi, România, text/ performance. She works stubbornly-chaotic, in the shadow of some conceptual presence/ under the spell (-the white vapor from a dream-) of some voices of women writers, friends-authors and the serene echoes of others, „scooping” the life of its fears. 2017, Beatitudine (political essay), poetry, published by Nemira/ Performance at ODD, CNDB, Tranzit, Anca Poterașu. All sounds (recorded, played, composed, edited) by Manja Ristić for SEMI SILENT Voices: Manja Ristić, Jakov Vilović Mixing: Mara Mărăcinescu

Marseille-Tokyo-Osaka-Bucharest A sound stop-over in Japan, in between homes Author: Elena Diaconu, 2020 Marseille-Tokyo. It starts almost like a game, I’m looking for plane tickets as I don’t know what else to do. I try other destinations, Taipei, Seoul, but they work less well. Tokyo rhymes with everything, even with a return to Bucharest. Marseille-Tokyo-Osaka-Bucharest is surely a more interesting story to tell than Marseille-Bucharest. By taking this trip, I have, at least, the merit of having chosen a good title for my story. Elena Diaconu works with words, sounds, languages. She translates Romanian news into French, wrote a children’s book while she was working in a book shop and generally tries to articulate thoughts, ideas and feelings in different sonic ways. Recording, editing and mixing by Elena Diaconu for the contest Cet été-là... organized by ARTE Radio. Transcript & translation to English: Aaaah. Mosquito. Mosquito? Hai (yes). Itchy/ichi (one)! Ni (two), san (three). Shi (four). Go (five). Aaaa. I stop at go. Miyajima guesthouse. That summer was freedom. It is freedom. Full. Guesthouse, guesthouse full. The freedom to stay or to leave. Chotto mate. What is chotto mate? I don’t have a job anymore, Please wait a minute. nor a house, Give me a time. nor a boyfriend. “That situation is when the person is somewhat shaken, old interpretations are tilted back, meaning is jolted, torn, drained…” Roland Barthes (korokke street seller – deep-fried croquettes) That summer I picked garlic at a farm in the north, I was caught by a typhoon in the south, I hiked a bit everywhere, I tasted everything, I attended a Buddhist ceremony and a kabuki play, I went to a love hotel and I did volunteer work for a matsuri – a festival of some sort. Saké? Rumania? Rumania tte iimashitaka? Romania? Did you say Romania? Biiiip Ohayo gozaimasu Good morning I laughed, smiled, prayed, yawned, ate, slept, fucked, read, saw, drank, repeated a ridiculous number of times (some restaurant order) “this is so beautiful!”. I bathed in the sea, in mud, in crowds, I posed, I photographed, I bought, spent, scattered. “The purpose of the nomadic state (Nicolas Bouvier) is not to supply the traveler with trophies or purchases, but to remove through erosion the superfluous, which is almost everything.” (train stop announcement) The day before leaving, I miss a train, the only one during the entire trip. I've been in Japan for 70 days. I don’t want to leave anymore. //

Bucharest Sketches is the fifth in the series of field recordings albums by Toni Dimitrov dedicated to a city. After the field recordings from Athens (released on Green Field Recordings), Milan and Ioannina (released on Auriculab), and Belgrade (released on Silber Records), this time the sketches are recorded in Bucharest during the stay in Romania for a field recording residency in the Danube Delta, Sonic Future Residencies, in the summer of 2019. You can hear the Bucharest streets, parks, the noise from the rain, fountains, interweaving subtly, blurring the line between field recording and sound art. Articolul Bucharest Sketches apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Obama Landing In Hiroshima. A Tour Day Off Author: Lukatoyboy 2016 It was back in 2016, spring, May, 27th, my first and so far only tour in Japan. During some unscheduled days, I went to Hiroshima on the day when Barack Obama was visiting. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, as the train from Tokyo arrived just some minutes before the helicopters appeared. I joined the crowds and start recording. Some hours later, I watched the actual speech from a small gas station on one of the river banks, surrounded by the members of the secret service. The gas station employee made some jokes to me about blowing it up... Perhaps I have this recorded, or not? Lukatoyboy is a musician, sound artist and educator from Belgrade based in Berlin. His current practice is based on performances dealing with networks, sound and narrative, using walkies talkies and site specific topics. Focused on the relation of chances and structures, he creates participatory works with suggested rules, questioning exclusivity and authority of an artist. Lukatoyboy is researching alternative methods of listening, using architecture and distance as tools for discovery, as well as approaches to live broadcast of interpretation. He is performing music and sound (ab)using electroacoustic improvisation based on transmission, feedback and analogue synthesizers and, occasionally, he is stepping back into real-time sampling of various objects, toys, voices, and fields. www.lukatoyboy.net Articolul Obama Landing in Hiroshima apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

At present times I perceive that an ultimate hybridization of living and non living sensory stimuli our daily cognizance has to put up with is only a surface noise of de-personalized (and certainly unfinished) collective morphology we comply to. Opposing that, I choose to create poetry reflecting upon commonplaces of unfading human struggle to understand depths of grief and devaluation of life. And as a field of resonance surrounding those I am driven by hopeless pursuit of the embodiment of love with all of its complexities, that represent my personal psychological blueprint. Poetry is an elevated state, in my case it is an emotionally charged scenery, textural space, always abundant with aural density in almost traditional narrative. As a writer I am searching for the “mirror stress” in which my subconsciousness and my reality are becoming proprioceptive and leaning onto each other. Death and love are deeply embedded in all-pervading existence, unfolding their vigorous discharge of life in profoundly intricate ways. One can only be humble if finds her/himself awake standing in the way of this one – same breath. Regarding sound, for me the most important transference of energy there is, I intent to overplay with its geometries finding comfort in re-constructed memories (through intervention and accentuation of semi-closed bio-acoustic processes I extract from field recordings, with intention to mutate them into soundscape compositions). With this cognitive personalization of particular space and time mnemotopia as such becomes imaginatively tactile, thus emotionally recognizable. Form of a flow, leans on auralization of inner dynamics rather then any aesthetically confined musical approach. And last but not the least, by choosing male voice for the final sonification of the words I express a need to abandon binary social constructions of a gender, and push gender “source” in my experiences into its natural form – a gender spectrum with all of its gruesomely hidden complexities that a human nature actually posses. * Manja Ristić (1979) born in Belgrade. Violinist, sound artist, published poet. Finished postgraduate studies at the RCM, London (2004). As a classical solo / chamber musician, composer and improvisational musician Manja performed across Europe and in the US. In her recent work Manja is active in the field of instrumental electro–acoustics, soundscape composition, field recording & interdisciplinary sound related research. She is founder of the Association of Multimedia Artists „Auropolis“ (since 2004), that by her guidance developed distinctive number of cultural events, international projects and educational modules in the fields of contemporary scene and multimedia arts. She works and lives between the island of Korčula (Croatia) and Belgrade (Serbia). www.manjaristic.blogspot.com Poetry, all sounds (recorded, played, composed, edited) by Manja Ristić Poetry reading by Paul Leonard Murrey Used short excerpt from the original track SUMMER, The Nightfall, collection of sound art by Manja Ristić published by Naviar Records, London (2018), www.naviarrecords.com Version composed for SEMI SILENT in the frame of Sonic Future Residencies, program supported by AFCN. Articolul Stories Untold apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Înspre is a musical composition which evolved slowly during the making of Dinspre. It took quite a while to write and perform, but it’s rare to prepare and experiment with a bunch of instruments, all available from a local music high school. It’s about things collapsing around us and then growing back up. An existential piece. Înspre is the second part of a composition representing an intimate study of the peripheral and the insular, the open and confined, the controlled and the impromptu. The composition has to be played back a little under loud. Musical composition created during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT in Iași, Romania in May 2019. Laurențiu Coțac is a musician and sound recordist living and working in Bucharest. Recorded, edited and mixed by Laurențiu Coțac for SEMI SILENT Articolul Înspre apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Dinspre is about the harshness and loneliness of these remote locations I’ve visited, it collects a bit of something which most people seem to be running away from at the end of the day. I’ve spend time observing sonic gestures and tonal imprints of various places in the outskirts of Iași, from cellars, yards, highways, open fields, bridges, to construction sites, abandoned warehouses and industrial plants etc. Big cities will always change their limits but they’ll be outlined and fragmented by something mechanistic. Dinspre is the first part of a composition representing an intimate study of the peripheral and the insular, the open and confined, the controlled and the impromptu. The composition has to be played back a little under loud. Sound composition created during SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT in Iași, Romania in May 2019. Laurențiu Coțac is a musician and sound recordist living and working in Bucharest. Recorded, edited and mixed by Laurențiu Coțac for SEMI SILENT Articolul Dinspre apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Tokyo. All the Sounds That I Can Feel From Deep Surroundings Author: Simina Oprescu The diversity of Tokyo’s sounds can make a string of connection about the Japanese noise culture. They seem influenced by it every day, by this constant knitting of different textures and tonic profiles. Mostly it is a mechanical profile, almost nothing organic but the voice of the whole humans gathered in one. Everything is wrapped in and comes through this artificial-synthetic medium, like poor speakers from the street or old radio. It becomes a walk of discovery of sounds and small areas of quietness, and the impact of the noise afterwards, for a short while, and basically a subtle flux, a drone. Simina Oprescu is composing since 2012, interested in the possibilities of sound’s integration in the visual mediums and the capacity of sound to change radically the understanding of the image: „In the Beginning was the Sound”. Simina studied photography and video art at the Arts University in Bucharest and one year in the electroacoustic composition department at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, Belgium. www.siminaoprescu.com Recorded, edited and mixed by Simina Oprescu for SEMI SILENT. Articolul Tokyo. All the Sounds That I Can Feel apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Letea Harp From the Wind Notes Author: Michal Kindernay The sound image of the rural surroundings of Letea. Very still and hot days of late June were followed by a sudden strong wind and the sound of the landscape took form of protracted noisy tunes, where the sound of the whole fauna and village life was drown out. Listen closely the wind whistles in the trees and hidden overtones of wind in the strings between the fences. Sound composition created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT in Letea Village, Tulcea County, Romania in June-July 2019. Michal Kindernay is an intermedia and sound artist, curator, performer and lecturer. His audio-visual installations interconnect art, technology and science. He reflects ecological issues through various technological approaches in relation to nature environment. His works include video performances, interactive installations or experimental documentary projects or sound compositions. He is one of the founders or yo-yo nonprofit culture organization, RurArtMap project and he was part of Školská 28 gallery collective in Prague. As organizer or artist he was involved in many international projects. He works and lives in Prague. www.yo-yo-yo.org/mk.html Recording, editing and mixing by Michal Kindernay for SEMI SILENT. Articolul Letea Harp apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

The House of Horses From “Inverted Houses” Author: Michal Kindernay In little poor but picturesque village between canals, the ancient forest and the sea – Letea, the animals are the main and most common inhabitants. Because of constant depopulation, disappearing of traditional living, jobs and consequences of climate change, the village is changing dramatically, many buildings lost their carers and are neglected, abandoned. Now, the animals take over the people's dwellings. Listen to the sound image of a house inhabited by horses. This composition is part of the series “Inverted Houses” – field recordings from many abandoned sheds, cottages and buildings in Letea. Sound composition created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT in Letea Village, Tulcea County, Romania in June-July 2019. Michal Kindernay is an intermedia and sound artist, curator, performer and lecturer. His audio-visual installations interconnect art, technology and science. He reflects ecological issues through various technological approaches in relation to nature environment. His works include video performances, interactive installations or experimental documentary projects or sound compositions. He is one of the founders or yo-yo nonprofit culture organization, RurArtMap project and he was part of Školská 28 gallery collective in Prague. As organizer or artist he was involved in many international projects. He works and lives in Prague. www.yo-yo-yo.org/mk.html Recording, editing and mixing by Michal Kindernay for SEMI SILENT. Articolul The House of Horses apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Letea Soundscapes. Ambient trip through Danube Delta Author: Toni Dimitrov, 2019 An ambient/soundscape piece containing field recordings from the whole trip to the Danube Delta and a nice subtle ambient melody. From the rain on the ferry on Danube, the traffic in Tulcea, the birds at Letea mornings, the canals in Sulina, to the forest, the wild horses, frogs, mosquitoes and the rich quietness of the delta. It is a meditative soundscape that compresses whole two-week experience into five minutes. Sound piece created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT to Letea Village, Tulcea County, Romania in June-July 2019. Toni Dimitrov is sound artist, field recordist and radio activist based in Skopje, Macedonia. Working in the field of sound have been curving his way into the new experimental music scene with his solo engagement, but also with lots of collaborative releases with various projects and under various names such as post global trio, post global duo, Sound_00/Lefterna (with Boban Ristevski), Hunter/Gatherer (with Ingman Wannerberg), Private Mountain (with Dimitar Dodovski), also many collaborations with artists like DR, Dmitri Zherbin, Jared Sagar, Rhucle, releasing countless releases on many labels around the world like Sonospace, Lagersaette, Winter light, Attenuation circuit, AOsmosis, Auriculab, Green Field... Exploring the dynamics of minimum vs. maximum, in terms and meanings of noise vs. drone, he is searching his own way of merging electronic sound and pure field recordings in certain styles of music, such as ambient and long-form drone explorations. His sound art and radio art productions have been broadcasted at various radios around the world and presented live or as sound installations. His radio programs on radio Kanal 103 are dedicated to contemporary electronic music and political discourse. The program 'post global: conceptual program for new music’ broadcasts for 18 years, is dedicated to contemporary electronic music, soundscape and field recordings. He is participating in RADIA network and AMARC international network. He curates the label post global recordings and élan vital recordings releasing ambient soundscape sound and organizing sound/art events. He curates and organizes Soundscape workshops. Aside from many other activities during the years, his recent professional engagements are on projects related to political analysis of media in the Institute of Communications and the Agency for Audio and Audio-Visual Services. Recording, editing and mixing by Toni Dimitrov for SEMI SILENT Articolul Letea Soundscapes apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Lush Dusk. Field Resilience Author: George Vlad, 2019 Lush Dusk is an exploration of equanimity in the face of setbacks, disappointment and adversity. Negative emotions are detrimental to creativity for me, but in this situation I managed to channel these and ended up using them as fuel for my listening and composition. The lush setting and feral life of Letea village made my job easier by offering an escape from conflict. Sound piece created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT to Letea Village, Tulcea County, Romania in June-July 2019. George Vlad: I’ve been working with sound in one form or another since the late 90s. Music composition, sound design, audio programming and field recording are integral parts to my day to day work. On top of my work in sound, I support and collaborate with a number of conservation initiatives in Africa and South America. My field recording expeditions take me to remote places where humans haven’t yet wreaked havoc. I’ve been privileged enough to record in the Congo and Amazon rain forests, Ethiopian Highlands and Erta Ale volcano, South African savanna and Eastern Senegal forests and many others. In the field I like to focus on intact ecosystems, disappearing languages and cultures, endangered wildlife, natural silence or non-obvious sounds. My sound recording work is released through Mindful Audio and Wild Aesthesia. Recording, editing and mixing by George Vlad for SEMI SILENT Articolul Lush Dusk apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Safe Place. The Time of Wind and Waters Author: beepblip "Terrans tend to feel they've got to get ahead, make progress. The people of Winter, who always live in the Year One, feel that progress is less important than presence." — Ursula Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness They say time stretches out in a place where the pace of technological progress has not caught up with the people's ambitions. For a newcomer, the village of Letea, on the brink of the ancient Letea Forest connected to the vast wetland of Danube Delta, may be the place for quiet contemplation, the time to reconnect with the wild and find one's inner peace. It is peculiar how this imaginary safe unspoiled place full of wildlife is contrasted with the harsh infertile land, cruel and violent for human and non-human animals alike. The voyage to these lands was much deeper than expected. The piece is a psycho-geographical memory of the safe place of wind and waters. Sound piece created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT to Letea Village, Tulcea County, Romania in June-July 2019. beepblip [Ida Hiršenfelder] makes immersive bleepy psycho-geographical soundscapes by use of analogue electronics, DIY and modular synths, field recordings and computer manipulations. She is interested in bioacoustics, experimental and microtonal music. She was a member of Theremidi Orchestra (2011–2017) DIY sound collective, performing at over 30 international venues for media art such as Piksel (Bergen), LiWoLi (Linz), Spektrum (Berlin), Radiona (Zagreb), Eyebeam (New York), Zagorje Noise Fest International (Trbovlje), Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (Ljubljana), Artos (Nicosia), KSEVT (Vitanje), Kino Šiška (Ljubljana). She collaborates with media artist Robertina Šebjanič and sound artist Aleš Hieng – Zergon on a series of chemical sound installations (Time Displacement / Chemobrionic Garden; Sound Disposition / Crystal Garden). She is a member of radioCona bioacoustics collective (Steklenik Gallery for Sound, Bioacustics and Art). Her solo album Noise for Strings, Vol. 1 (2019) was published by Kamizdat label. www.beepblip.org Recording, editing and mixing by beepblip for SEMI SILENT Articolul Safe Place apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Nobody Asked. Stories from Letea Village, Danube Delta Author: Ana Teodora Popa, 2019 Isolation people experience in a village this small is deafening, if you dare to listen. Talking about feelings is considered a sign of weakness, and mental health is the last concern when survival is the main priority in a small, poor village, during drought season. Daria and her neighbor are widows. This means horses will most likely occupy their houses after they pass away. This is the natural course in Letea. This is the silent pain you hear if you stop and listen. Sound piece created during the SONIC FUTURE RESIDENCIES organized by Asociația Jumătatea plină and SEMI SILENT to Letea Village, Tulcea County, Romania in June-July 2019. Ana Teodora Popa is a sound engineer and composer, passionate about theater, radio and innovation. She lives in Iași, Romania. Recording, editing and mixing by Ana Teodora Popa for SEMI SILENT Transcript translated in English: Daria: Take it, ma'am, buy something from me so I can feed the kids. See how we ended up in our own country? Not good. Who gets to decide our faith? Voices. Daria: I'm an old lady and I've got two dogs. My husband lies in the ground but I still roam the Earth. Insects. Daria: I am the way I am. A widow on Earth, but I still want to talk to anyone because I've got no one... I lay between four walls... Crickets. Daria: I had three children, one sits in the ground, God rest her soul. I don't know what she had. She had the "children's disease". I don't know the name for it. Four and a half months old. I was outside, washing. When I came in from washing di... the... clothes, she had... she was laying like this, and her eyes were... like this... under... here... up. I wasn't supposed to bother her, because she had the "children's disease". So I panicked, since it never happened to me before, grabbed her and ran outside, yelling, found this woman, my neighbor... A woman: You were supposed to throw a black cloth over her. Daria: Well, I didn't know... "Leave the child here, go find Todorania (she was our neighbor, there was Marenca too, and others) to cast a spell over her. I ran, left the baby there. I was still young, I didn't know any better. Well, what else can I say? She didn't live. Two-three days, then she died. I took her to Tulcea. And the doctor told me, Ms. Munteanu: "Ms. Daria, I see you suffer for every child here, but listen, tomorrow morning I'm letting you go home, because your daughter won't make it." I instantly fell to the ground. Birds. Voices. Engine. Daria: It's my yard, and I'm helping anyone, but when it comes to me, there's no mercy. A woman: We're old now, nobody sees us. Daria: They take everything, it's never enough, and... Nobody wants a Mother. They all want billions now. Nobody sees the Mother, because I'm not a Mother anymore... I'm... A woman: She drinks all night, she screams... she yells all day, God help us. There's no woman like her in the whole village. Daria sings. Daria: You have no idea how many mosquito bites I had to endure. My dad used to beat me across the hands and head because he was saying "right" and I was making left. Because I was little... ten years old, and couldn't hold the damn paddle. Paddle, you know what that is? That big oar? It was three times my size and I was supposed to paddle with it. And Father would beat me as hard as he could. Upon arriving at Sulina I was all swollen. Head, hands, everywhere, because I didn't know how to hold the paddle, yes. But at the age of ten, to make fun of me like that... Well, he was mean, my dad. He taught me well. A woman: Those were the times. Daria: Yes. Daria: But what I say it's the truth. The truth, дочка. Well, I don't want to cry or sing anymore. A woman: It's nobody's fault. Who? No. But whose fault could it be?

The piece deals with an embodied dematerialization of a grid, a structure. Through a hypnotic process the listener is guided to embody the struggles of Ailanthus Altissima, The Tree of Heaven entangled in the fences of Bucharest and to exit this limitation mentally. Articolul This grid this structure apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

One of my favorite objectives in my short trip to Paris was to record the sound of TGVs. I was always fascinated by the idea of being a train-spotter and in my recording-visit to the Gare de l’Est, I had the chance to catch three TGVs and two “regular” trains that sounded and looked like TGVs… I recorded some of the train station’s ambiance, but mostly the trains. Have a good listening at precisely 12.55 pm! Articolul Gare de l’Est apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

The revitalization of an ancient Transylvanian Saxon custom Articolul Fuga Lolelor apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

The poetry of V. Leac seems suspended somewhere in between humor, absurdity, and a light and tender perplexity in the face of those minuscule exceptional instances in one’s life. Every next step is a trustworthy transgression toward an uncertain, promising and yet deluded future. In the shape of a musical/sonic performance, we take upon ourselves to read his poetry, with warm loudness and other means tangible while standing on our toes: a performance in the guise of a duo of voices for a spoken-choir simulacrum, using drawing as percussion, some recordings from inside a piano, and a double bass. Articolul Sister of a ball boy, a poem by V. Leac apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

This sonic poem – in the absence of words – could be a participatory review for the abundance of dating apps rooted relationships with short expiration date. It contains reactions to matches on such apps, reflections to the essay The Agony of Eros by Byung-Chul Han, memory exhumations and sharp intimacy technicalities. The voice-voices disclose fragility as virtue and pain as spectacle as much as criticism and joy and pleasure as heart fitness. Articolul Ode to your frugal love affairs apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

A personal and slightly emotional reading of the past, present and a possible future of the National Center of Dance in Bucharest. Articolul Omnia 2020 apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

The material you are about to hear is an immersive acoustic experience containing footage from and around HOIA BACIU forest. It focuses on the POIANA ROTUNDĂ area, labelled as the nexus for series of events, often depicted as peculiar. Six audio segments carefully selected: details of all sorts; tactile illusions; collages; arrangements or unprocessed sound, mixed together. Some brutal, some seamless, blending the raw with the subjective. Articolul Apophenia (binaural) apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

We track. We follow movement, note the progress or existence of something, we signal through sonar and bio sonar, radio and Morse, radar and scanners, heart monitors and surveillance. In so doing, we listen but also compose an acoustic space of our trailing, create sonic debris of our pursuit, a spontaneous audible record. Articolul Eight Over Two: A Soundtrack apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

During a thunderstorm that never happened, 5 people meet by fireside to discuss how power structures play a part in how we interpret and hear different voices. Together they converse and examine how we listen to each other's voices, how we experience our own voices and how we think our voices might relate to our personalities and identities. In reality, the 5 of them actually met individually with the artist in the sticky heat of Toronto's humid summer days, surrounded by cicadas singing in the trees. Five separate conversations and four and a half hours of recordings were edited together into one conversation – because isn't it so much nicer to imagine them all sitting around a fire together as the rain gently fades away? Articolul 5 voices by the proverbial Fireside apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

A non-verbal sound design piece that translates the struggle of living a normal life, while dealing with the memory of a past trauma and its triggers. Articolul Santé (binaural) apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

I visited gate 3 of the Constanța shipyard on a Friday afternoon, taking on as „stalker” the local poet Yigru Zeltil, hence the abundance of steps on the recording. I did not catch a lot of interesting sounds with my DR-05 Tascam equipped with wind protection, except for a freight train that most likely carried cocaine, several types of trucks loading and unloading, plus a special crane sorting and otherwise handling scrap metal. When I approached the crane in order to better record the metal sound on metal, Kraftwerk style, there came some sort of guard who explained to me, in English, that „this is private property”, „please delete”... even though I tried to tell him I do not do industrial espionage. Following, come the other gates, even if access is difficult and you are asked for ID at the entrance. I see this trip soundtrack as a form of escape into industrial sounds, which you hear a lot of in my musical project, Nava Spațială. Over and out. Articolul Gate 3 apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Cars pass at high speed through a village and overlap with lives lived alongside the roads of Romania. Like waves, the noise of engines invades the sound space and transports us from one house to another. At each passage, a previously imperceptible sound is revealed. This sound experience prompts a listening proposition: One sound can hide another; but could a sound contain, in itself, another sound? Can completely different objects and actions generate identical sounds? The search for twin sounds and the discovery of spontaneous "morphings" in the recordings made during my road trips are the threads of this sound creation. Articolul Twin Sounds apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Early morning walk with Maria in Benești village, Vâlcea county. An exercise in finding the right morning ambience. A reflection on the recording process. The dogs are our friends. Articolul Otetelișanu Morning with Maria apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

The stories that were told, the stories that were made, the ghosts that we heard and those that we imagined. A composition using invited and created sounds, a play with the acoustics of a generous basement, mixing prerecorded, diffused and rerecorded sounds in a dynamic dialog between faraway nature sounds, a voice imitating natural sounds and also being a voice, and the evidence of the architectural properties of the building through its acoustics and “mobile parts”. Articolul Basement Overture apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.

Hundreds of poultry, ducks of all ages, from hatchlings right out of their egg to noisy males, several varieties of geese, some very large with red cheeks like a cock’s comb, turkeys, chickens and hens, delicate decorative cocks like knick-knacks, peacocks in full bloom, some varieties of pigeons with hideous heads and a discussion about ostriches. A binaural immersion that smells of bird droppings. Articolul Poultry Market (binaural) apare prima dată în SEMI SILENT.