Chris Watson & Izabela Dłużyk
present Białowieża
 
Main Room 9:30 PM 

Located between Poland and Belarus, the Białowieża Forest is the last remaining example of Europe's pristine and unspoilt natural landscape. Over the last hundred years, much like a great part of Earth's ecosystems, it has been the scene of a series of events that have threatened its equilibrium and survival. In recent years, its wilderness has once again placed it at the centre of a humanitarian tragedy unfolding in the border region, mainly due to the passage of refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach one of the possible gateways into the European Union. What kind of life and pulse is there in such a place, where millennia of history coexist with yet another sad episode of our civilisation? Chris Watson and Izabela Dłużyk, two masters of the art of recording and reinterpreting nature, have plunged into the heart of the Białowieża Forest this year in order to bring us a chunk of its breathing, alternating between the magnificent gush of natural life and the howl of death. The multi-channel sound system concert and installation, which takes place in the dark, is also a rare opportunity to travel back in time.
  
Białowieża is part of The Crossing, the first artistic creation of the TIMES project, commissioned by Semibreve, Berlin Atonal, Unsound e Sónar.


Christina Vantzou
presents The reintegration of the ear *
with Irène Kurka and John Also Bennett
*extended version premiere
 
Main Room 11PM 


Returning to Semibreve, this time to perform at the festival’s largest venue, Christina Vantzou is bringing back a memento of her performance in 2021 with John Also Bennett. During those autumn days, she turned her microphone towards Nature, capturing the sounds of the countryside, especially the sounds of watercourses, to take home with her from Portugal. These recordings, combined with those of other bodies of water with a Mediterranean accent, became veins of sound that run through an electro-acoustic body composed of analogue electronics, voice and flutes in the new work she is now presenting. Not the least expected in a musical score, these are the essential elements of a new substance that, not by chance, moves freely through the ether by means of multi-channel propagation. After having premiered at the GRM in Paris, Semibreve will now hold the first performance of the extended version of The reintegration of the ear.