‘revenant : zeltini’ 01:05:07

unfathomless 05 CD

site-specific session with: Eamon Sprod (Tarab), Max Shentelevs, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan

recorded November 15, 2008 at Zeltini, Latvia

mixed the following months from 4 synchronized binaural recordings (or ‘multi-naural’ as I refer to it).

‘revenant‘ is an ongoing project with open membership that focuses on site-specific acoustic actions. All sounds originate from materials found in-situ, and from interactions with the space itself.

Zelitini is a former Soviet military base located in the forests of Northeastern Latvia which is now abandoned. This particular base housed missiles from the Soviet nuclear arsenal that needed to be stored in large horizontal bunkers. On this visit we arrived rather late and found that most of the bunkers had been locked up. As it grew dark and cold we decided to set up in the last open bunker to record as we new it would be our only chance to collaborate in this unique space.

Reviews

An ongoing project with open membership, that is what Revenant is about. On their second (?) CD, we find John Grzinich again, but with four new members, Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan. The five of them went to Zeltini, a former Soviet army base in Latvia and they looked for some stuff to create music with, as this is another angle of Revenant. Find material on the site, and play that as it were instruments, using the space as its concert space or studio. Again we are not told how this was recorded or edited, but for about fifty plus minutes we hear these five persons moving through the bunker space, toying around with the various objects they found in this space, like glass, stones and metal. This is done in a musical manner, through means of improvisation. Not a random scattering of debris, but listening and interacting with each other and creating music with non-musical objects. There are overtones to be found here, which are hard to place (wind? somebody blowing a pipe?), which add a nice textural tone to the proceedings. Maybe like the previous one, this is the natural element that is being used here. I am not entirely sure. The only reference I could think of is the recent work of Jeph Jerman – closely miked acoustic objects being played, but then in the large resonating bunker in Latvia. Not the most easy listening one around, but surely some great music has been captured here. (Frans de Waard on Vital Weekly)

Revenant (I can’t help but think of some especially powerful and frightening figures from Doom) on this occasion, November 2008 in Latvia, consisted of Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan (though Grzinich writes: “‘revenant’ is an ongoing project with open membership”). No instrumentation is mentioned and, further, there’s a notation on the sleeve stating, “Final piece edited from 4 synchronized binaural recordings”.
Perhaps it’s the cover imagery, maybe the former-SSR setting, but it’s quite tempting to hear this dark, brooding music as inhabiting a Stalker-like environment. There’s an oppressiveness, a dank aspect wherein one thinks of cold, clammy surfaces, algae-covered wall, ancient heavy machinery. The two overriding sounds areas are a blurred, metallic kind of drone, as though there’s a sputtering engine at work somewhere down the dark corridor and the clanking of light metal objects, linked like chains, skittering across the foreground. Small rhythms emerge: soft-mallet taps with a vaguely gamelan feel, as though at least one of the devices lying around still functions. Some faint voices then, rather surprisingly, a jew’s harp, strumming away in a loose rhythm, verging on a melodic fragment, a hapless fellow traveler in the sewers. This continues for the final 10+ minutes of the work, some increasingly violent clatter alongside, until the sounds skid to a conclusion among the chirps of mechanical beetles and sloshing water.
The work is almost static, in a sense, minor events drifting in and out of focus; again, one thinks of the lengthy water-covered floor shot of Tarkovsky, though the focus here isn’t quite so sharp. (Brian Olewnick on Just Outside)

Revenant is an open-membership project carried on by a number of specialists of location recording, in this occasion the quintet of Maksims Shentelevs, Eamon Sprod, John Grzinich, Kaspars Kalninsh and Felicity Mangan. The environment inspiring this release is an abandoned Soviet military base in a Latvian forest, comprising large horizontal bunkers where missiles were once stored. One of them – the only that hasn’t been shut yet – was used for a semi-transcendental experience in which the participants spread around the place in almost total darkness, “feeling my way through the space by hand and by ear” as noted by Sprod. As always in this sort of venture, we have to divide things. On a side, the value of the product as a document of a unique event, obviously higher for those who lived it. On the other, audiences at home trying to find elements of interest in something that risks sounding as a thousand of products of comparable origin. In this case, the professionalism of the people involved and their ability of determining the building’s responsiveness and its inherent musicality made the difference and – although I wouldn’t say that the album is really special – a good part of the resounding materials is sufficiently evocative to justify the need of spinning the disc several times to look for additional details and psychological hints. At any rate, let me be very explicit: in this house, stretched frequency auras and baffling resonances will forever be preferred to rustling noises and “scrape, rattle ‘n’ roll” incidents, of which there’s no shortage here. (Massimo Ricci on Touching Extremes)

It was a busy week in Berlin but one of the nice surprises was a visit to Teufelsberg, a former NSA ‘listening station’ that has been abandoned since the wall came down. This small complex of buildings sits on top of an artificial mountain of rubble left over from the second world war. A group of us went to listen to something else, the space itself. Actually there were multiple spaces that included some old concrete military buildings and a series of geodesic domes, which I imagine, must have housed the surveillance equipment. The highest dome, sits at least 7 stories up, has a fiberglass shell that offers many sonic possibilities with its unique acoustic properties. The video below is composed of a few clips I filmed (in very windy conditions) while the sound is excerpted from a straight recording of a 40 minute improvisation of 5 people. Special thanks to Natalia for suggesting this and for Dusan to drive us out there in the snow.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is a selected set of photos from a series taken in 2007. Abandoned spaces like this are from old soviet collective farms, however they  are rapidly disappearing. Structures like this decayed so rapidly because of the poor methods of construction. It was common for people to steal any valuable materials for their own use while letting the ‘collective’ (state owned property) to fall victim to the lowest standard. I converted the images to black and white thinking of them as a shadow of the place I visited to take these photos. What you see has since been destroyed (but has a new storage barn built in its place by a local farmer).

I finally managed to visit a curious location in a forest in south Estonia and discovered that it indeed was one of the former soviet nuclear missile silos. As I’ve seen, most missile bases were mobile launching pads for missiles that were stored on trucks in bunkers. In this location the missiles were actually stored vertically in silos. It is likely that these bases were armed right up until the time of Estonian re-independance in 1991 when the soviet army pulled out. As you can see in the photos the site is being excavated and will eventually be filled in (I assume). Not having much time, I only managed to record the sound of stones dropping into the water at the bottom. The silos were quite deep and very resonant as you can hear.

stones tossed into an abandoned soviet nuclear missile silo (2:13) mp3 file

While visiting Riga this past weekend we were able to gain access (officially) to the old power station in Riga. The power station, which generated heat for the city, ceased operations in 2003 and is slowly undergoing a process of transformation, yet the building and many old artifacts remain. There are plans to convert the structure into the Contemporary Art Museum of Latvia. This was the third visit to the site, the first two were during the Riga Sound Locations workshop. The recordings are from live actions in the space, particularly the “great hall” with its huge empty water tank as a central feature.

Some recordings in the space:

Riga power station binaural sound walk mp3 file

Riga power station internal water tank drones mp3 file

video of a revenant sound action made in the hollow metal shell of an electrical substation on lake peipsi near the russian border. the participants are eamon sprod (tarab), maksims shentelevs, kaspars kalnins and myself.

recorded november 16, 2008. note the sound of ducks flying overhead towards the end.

In the last 8 months I’ve made a number of recordings of old, and as far as I can tell, abandoned telegraph lines. My friend Toomas has a step-grandfather who was a telephone repairman during the Soviet times and kindly let me borrow his old pole climbing “shoes” (which are metal claws made from old gun barrels that you strap to your boots). On a good day, with the right wind velocities and direction, the wires “sing”, creating aeolian harp and other effects that clearly resonates down through the dried wooden body of the pole. The sound quality is obviously different depending on if you attach contact mics to the pole or directly to the wires. With a good dry pole that picks up the resonant drones it’s even possible to record the sound acoustically.

What can be seen and heard here is a clear reminder of the amazing work of Alan Lamb. Alan Lamb has been working with recording telegraph wires since the mid-1970s when he set up an experimental lab on a piece of land he bought in the outback of Western Australia (thanks to Camilla and Eamon for relaying stories). His research continues to today at the WIRED Lab which has some thorough documentation and recordings of aeolian wires (and more). I first heard Alan’s work on Primal Image released in 1995 on the Dorobo label, a landmark CD which continues to inspire to this day.

Fortunately there is an abundance of locations to choose from around South Estonia and I try to make regular visits to the sites depending on the weather conditions. From experience I can say that all poles and wires have their unique qualities making the recording process a constant field for exploration. The recordings are below are direct except for some minor equalization and level adjustment.

harmonic remains at Ruusa – contact mics on wires (4:28): harmonic remains at Ruusa

harmonic remains at Luhamaa contact mics on pole (4:47): harmonic remains at Luhamaa

This past weekend I was in Riga to visit the Sound Forest festival. I could write about my impressions of the festival but I won’t. While there were a few good performances I enjoyed more the side activities that came with visiting friends in Riga. As is often the case we ended up exploring some ruins, namely some oil tanks at an industrial site in Balderaja (where the Daugava river meets the Baltic sea) and some abandoned underground bunkers northeast of the city near Adaži. Not much was planned to the results were spontaneous. Below are a few excerpts of the recordings.

deep resonance inside old oil tanks, the view from the tanks above looking out to the Baltic sea: mp3 file

group improvisation inside the bunker, those present in the bunker session- Maksims Shentelevs, Toomas Thetloff, Kaspars Kalninš, Jekabs Nimanis, Johanna Lonka and myself: mp3 file

An urban research group in Tartu was looking at the phenomenon of urban exploration. I suggested to make a small trip somewhere in the city. Out of a few interesting possibilities we decided on the former meat factory, a site full of urban legends, as it is fairly central and easily accessible. This meat factory stopped production some time in the early 1990s but the evidence of their production is still visible everywhere. On the third floor there are literally rooms filled with piles of bones from what appeared to be sheep. The rest of the building is mostly trashed. It seems to be a popular to practice graffiti and make fires. The highlight was the view from the roof and being able to make a few sound recordings with the group.

One important idea for me is to not only explore these types of hidden or abandoned spaces, but to instigate some creative activity while visiting. While abandoned spaces may not be valuable for the society, they offer creative potential for the individual, who often forgets how much the everyday social codes, laws and regulations of the urban environment confines their mode of living. Once these boundaries or removed, even the very experience of navigating and sensing the urban space must be reconsidered, opening potentials for more creative exploration (however short or ephemeral). These two recordings give some idea on how working with sound can allow one to interact with the material objects and forms of the space. The first case was more of a simple walking action on the broken glass while the second was more of an improvisation with all the available materials throughout the space.

former meat factory – walking action (3:20) Tartu, Estonia: urban expoliration01

former meat factory – sound action (7:28) Tartu, Estonia: urban exploration02

Special thanks to Sven and the others from Linnaseminar for this trip. Also, Tanel Saimre from Tartu has a nice page of binaural recordings made around Tartu. He has a recording of the same sound action but from another angle (his head!). Tanel Siamre recording

UPDATE: Nov. 5th 2008 – the former meat factory has been demolished. Someone said they wanted to convert it into apartments or something, but I think it needs to be torn down before anything new is built there (see the last photo in the gallery).

I’ve been taking advantage of the mild winter weather so far to do some site-specific recordings. Its normal that I visit various old ruins and natural locations in the countryside, but recently I’ve been going into old houses that have been abandoned for some time. It should be noted that after Estonian independence in the early 90s there was a trend for younger people to leave the countryside to move to the cities or even abroad to seek out a new life. As many old people were left behind there was no turnover to the next generation leaving many holes in rural life after the elderly pass away. Some families attempt to keep the old houses as summer homes while others are simply abandoned. With the value of land rising rapidly the trend may be reversing however.

Making recordings in these spaces is in some ways an attempt to capture the sense of decay that exists in the voids where life once existed. I find the silence that exists in these spaces to be more than an absence of sound. There is a sort of shadowy resonance that exists in the objects and walls that were left behind. When one interacts with these objects and infuses the space with sound this hollow resonant feeling comes out along with sound itself. This is particularly so with old houses, maybe because of the relation and character that people take on with their homes. This is clearly different than the feeling in old factories and industrial spaces (one could argue that its simply the lack of resonance in small rooms, but I feel there is more going on being a “foreign” presence in the space). Nevertheless, going into these spaces offers a chance to infuse some faint feeling of “life” through the sounds.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Riga Sound Locations was a four day workshop that took place at various spaces around the city of Riga, Latvia. The project starts with the concept of site-specific artistic activity while integrating contemporary sound recording practices that cover areas of “performance”, “field recording”, “improvisation” and “documentation”. With the site being the prime focus, the artist as actor and instigator uses the means of sound to investigate the qualities of of the surrounding space and his or place in it. Riga Sound Locations (”Rīgas Skaņu Vietas“) was a workshop conducted from August 14-16th at various sites around Riga and was organized by Maksims Shentelevs and myself in cooperation with NOASS. The aim of the workshop was to visit 6 different locations around the city in order to investigate site-specific sound activity related to each place. These activities would be recorded and filmed to document each intervention. A group of about 6 people went out each day to see what could be found that was unique to each locations. The sites included an abandoned apartment, construction site, former power station, abandoned warehouse, old military airport and a backyard. Apart from the backyard all of these locations were temporary in the sense that they either being developed or destroyed at some point in the near future. So not only were we documenting our activities we attempted to capture the transitional feeling of the spaces.

day 1, at an abandoned flat across the Daugava river.

day 1, 25 stories up on the roof of a new skyscraper

day 1, Jekabs tries to contact mic a noisy construction elevator

day 2, playing found plates at an empty factory space

day 2, ringing hanging pipes at an empty factory space

day 2, exploring the steam turbine at the former Riga power station

day 3, rolling ceramic insulators at an abandoned military air hangar

day 3, improvising with found objects in an abandoned air hangar

day 3, an improv session in the backyard

day 4, returning to the former power station

day 4, Patrick McGinley joins in to play the steam turbine wheel

The video recordings were edited and presented as an installation at the SKAN sound art event in Riga from September 26th to October 13th.

Former Riga Power Station (2:02) Riga, August 2007: Download Link

Former Military Airplaine Hangar (2:08) Riga, August 2007: Download Link

Backyard Improvidation (2:20) Riga, August 2007: Download Link

participants included: John Grzinich, Toomas Thetloff, Maksims Šenteļevs, Jēkabs Nīmanis, Kaspars Kalniņš, Gints Birznieks, Ivars Šmits, Ivars Gravlējs, Mārtiņš Strautnieks (Martines Gonzales), Jānis Biķis, Kaspars Groševs, Patrick McGinley, Johanna Lonka

Check the Sound Locations channel on Vimeo for more documentation

Click here to view the embedded video.

For the month of September visual and sound artist Jim Haynes was in the MoKS residency. Towards the end of the month we made an excursion with Jim and fellow artist Toomas Thetloff to one of my favorite “lost” places in Estonia, the former collective farm site known as “Avangard” (yes, that was its name). Avangard is about a 20 minute drive north of Tartu and is now mostly a collection of old barns, decaying structures and small local industries. Nonetheless the place provides us with a number of possibilities for site-specific sound activites. Last year, along with Toomas, Patrick McGinley and Hitoshi Kojo we made a special performance evening at Avangard on the occasion of the traditional Estonian “jaanipäaev” or mid-summer day as well as several earlier recording sessions.

On this visit I was particularly drawn to the abundance of decaying and rusted metal on the numerous structures around the site. It may have been because of Jim’s interest in rusting and corrosive processes that are prevalent in his visual work of which I have an interest but have never worked with directly. Interestingly one of the stories told by Jim at his artist talk at Y-Gallery in Tartu, was about attempting to translate the rusting process into sound by somehow recording it. Although he explained his attempts were not entirely successful the idea is intriguing. The next best thing then, is to maybe use rust itself as a sound element in exploring the surfaces and textures of resonant objects. This is part of what was happening in our last session at Avangard. So besides the macro images I captured with my camera (above), there was a certain degree of rusted textures that found their way into our sonic explorations. I’m posting a few excerpts from our recordings below.

Avangard Rust 1 (4:25) Estonia, September 2007: Download Link

Avangard Rust 2 (2:50) Estonia, September 2007: Download Link