MERZOUGA - DE RERUM NATURA / DANCE OF THE ELEMENTS (CD)


"In his poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) the Roman poet/philosopher Lucretius (c. 99 - c. 55 BCE) explores Epicurean physics and philosophy through richly poetic language and metaphors, as he presents an entire cosmology: based on the principles of atomism, Lucretius tries to explain the nature of the mind and soul, and the development of the world. When Soila Valkama, the ars acustica-editor of Finnish broadcaster YLEISRADIO commissioned us to produce a sound-composition, we suggested to her a playful attempt of a sonic translation of Lucretius' ideas. The listener embarks on a journey in which a universe of sound unfolds. Smallest sonic elements float through space, dark and chaotic, merge to create concrete forms, transform into different consistencies, from water to wind, from stone to dust, steadily in motion in a constant process of becoming and dissolving. Late in the piece the sounds of mammals and humans arrive, blurring again into a palimpsest-like structure when the circle is closing. We used field-recordings of nature, as an analogue for the "concrete forms" that are created by the colliding elements, but also concrete musical structures: fragments of melodies, tonalities, and rhythmic patterns in contrast to the more abstract material. Intertwined with the sound-composition we encounter fragments of Lucretius' text in English and in Latin, carefully adapted and translated by Janko, and spoken by his brother, the actor Stefko Hanushevsky." (label info)
in stock | DE| 2019| GRUENREKORDER | 14.90


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