Six short excerpts from a 30 minute audio installation by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. Here it is seen installed at the Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart in Berlin, Germany in the spring of 2009.
Ninety-eight audio speakers fill the space, mounted on stands, chairs, and hung from the the roof. The structure of the piece tries to mirror that of the illogical but connected juxtapositions that people experience in the dream world. One soundscape moves into another; an electronic dreamscape composition shifting into sound effects such as factory noises, crashing waves or birds wings and then into a guitar and strings composition then into a choir sequence and marching band. Intermingled with this are 3 horrific dreams narrated by Janet's voice coming out of the central gramophone horn.
This installation was curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev for the 16th Biennale of Sydney and made possible with the generous support of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Freunde Guter Musik e.V. Berlin, The Canada Council, and Bowers & Wilkins Speakers.
Credits:
Compositions
Lightness and Weight: composed by Frieda Abtan (not heard in this clip)
Traditional Tibetan Prayer: performed by the Nuns from Thrangu Tara Abbey, Kathmandu, Nepal (1st clip)
Bad Foot March: composed by Tilman Ritter, Orion Miller, J. Cardiff and G. B. Miller (2nd Clip)
The Sacred War: composed by Aleksandr Aleksandrov, words: Vasily Lebedev-Kumach (3rd Clip)
Murder of Crows Aria: music: Tilman Ritter, words: J. Cardiff and G.B. Miller (6th clip)
Dread: composed by Tilman RItter (not heard in this clip)
Crows Did Fly (Kathmandu Lullaby): composed by George Bures Miller (not heard in this clip)
Guitars: Orion Miller, Jeff Person, Titus Maderlechner
Bass: Orissa Miller
Drums: Titus Maderlechner
Piano: Tilmann Ritter
Singers: Michael Mueller, Sophia Brickwell, Ana Pinto, Anna Retczak, Alexander Steinbrecher, Urmas Pevgonen, Sergej Prjahin, Sergej Shafranovich, Valerij Pysarenko, Dmitri Plotnikov, Nikolaj Pavlenko, Andrej Malynk
All orchestral arrangements by Tilman Ritter, performed by the Babelsberg Film Orchestra, conducted by Günter Joseck,
Choir conducted by Victor Skriptchenko ("Sacred War") and Tilmann Ritter ("Aria")
Additional Orchestration: Thomas Stöwer
Recording, sound mixing and sound design: Titus Maderlechner