Ur-Ur
Eight sound miniatures | Audiogenealogy, 2016
Ur-Ur is the first audible result of an ongoing artistic exploration based on genealogical research. Family trees are turned into sound structures, kinships experienced as acoustic, and thus temporal and spatial relations. Depending on the occasion, texts, visual as well as theatrical or other extra-musical elements may be incorporated. Ur-Ur features eight sound miniatures, each of them putting one of my ‘great-great-grandfathers’ into focus. The resulting pieces comprise all direct relatives who lived during the time span of the respective central person, as far as known. Each life is represented by a specific single tone resp. frequency shift, each generation being assigned a certain octave. Leading from great-grandparents to great-grandchildren, each composition spans about 200 years and up to seven octaves which also cover a great portion of the human hearing range. Like life itself, these compositions resemble each other in their general layout. However, in detail they reveal most diverse characteristics. And just as in real life, various interferences may occur between single tones, leading to more and less harmonious constellations. |